Entries
are
posted by the year the writer arrived, so be sure
to check either side of the yearyou're looking for to
find your old buddies, shipmates, and
sweethearts! I'll update this page as I
receive your warstory! No anoymous reports
-only if you're
willing to put yourself up to the ridicule of
the world will you be entered into this
Guestbook! Also, please note that the
email addresses listed are those at the me the
entry was received - some of them from
1997! Sorry if they don't work now...

VT_of_a_Swallow =
Straight down when U tap the Kleins on
the wire
My_Warstory = Arrived in time for the fleet
fight, squids in the water
who dint make the boats Quad mate gets luv
notes sent to him on blotter acid
sheets Pot for $100 in 2x2 zip bags Couldn't
watch Dallas sober Coconut crab is
tasty Gooney birds flyin into the movie screen
USO belly dancer, we all
applauded when she put the veil back on Hector
out of the water mouth fulla
hooks Surfing over fire coral on a borrowed
board We were the last to see them
before they crashed in the Iranian desert

80-81
Wade Bonds = Bondswade@ahoo.com
Citizenship = USA
Service = USN; Outfit = Building the BoQ U.S. near
the Mess Hall in Diego Garcia.
My_Quest = to find people i served with there
My_Warstory =Around the Holidays of 1980 on Diego
Garcia, I remember when they started checking
everyone’s mail from rumors going around that pot
was being mailed in, and a friend of mine said he
was going to send some to me.

1980
Name = David Lewis
submit_by = davidmlewis8@yahoo.com
Citizenship = USA; Service = USN; Outfit = USS Ajax
My_Quest = Doing whatever I feel like doing!
VT_of_a_Swallow = 0
My_Warstory = I arrived in Diego on the USA Ajax
AR-6 during the Iranian hostage crisis. I was
a high pressure welder in the weld shop 26a.
When we went I took a couple of fishing rods, a 7
foot roller guide heavy and a surf rod. Glad I
did as rods were in short supply then. Fished
mainly for snapper for eating, and sharks for
entertainment. Back then there was a fishing
barbe anchored out, and managed to hook a large
hammerhead but was broken off, too much fish.
Divers would get pissed when we Fished for sharks
off the ship. Wish I had known then that there
was bonefish there, but had no clue.
Most of the island was off
limits when I was there, seems like you can get
around more now. Never got to the
plantation. There were no women then, except
for an ensign on our ship. Recreation
activities were few, baseball (do not recommend
sliding on coral), and volleyball. Ships store
on the island was small, and did not have
much. I can remember there were a couple of
Conex containers that had been converted to huts on
the point. No big piers, no record boats and I
can remember the previous position ships
arriving.
Our nickname for the place
was fantasy island and every time a plane came in we
would call out "da plane, da plane" like on the TV
show. I got out in September and spent 3 days
in the new marring huts waiting on the plane.
Time to go home.
Good times.

80-81

Bill
Compton = comptonbill@hotmail.com

Citizenship
= USA; Service = USN; Outfit = nmcb-40

My_Quest
= to tell what happened to coconut crab after donkey
gate ride VT_of_a_Swallow = My_Warstory = lots of
liver juice out there. boones farm- mellow days, easy
nights and gutter mornings always changed by what came
in the cargo containers. old Milwaukee (old mildew) I
have never forgotten that horrible fake milk, bearable
cold-undrinkable when warm Concrete transmit mixer
crew with tom m- that concrete pump was difficult at
best junior-ride over to donkey gate in deuce and a
half- tried chewing tobacco (worm dirt) for first
time-bad idea junior-one more EO was with us and it
was not willie farmer. he still owes us a case of
beer-he never got caught and we didn't turn him in.

we
caught a coconut crab and stuck him in compartment
under drivers door.

went
back after a day and released him from truck in shop
during lunch. back of truck was still filled with palm
fronds.

My_Warstory
= what a ride on the rock not sure that going to the
plantation side of the rock after hrs was worth exo's
mast and 15 day restriction and the loss of one of
those fabulous stripes. My god man we were on the rock
for crap sake. How much more restricted can you get
than the ROCK! what a joke. I think Willie Farmer was
the only one that didn't get caught, and he stole a
grader in the field to make muster in the morning.
Lots and lots of drinking. Great sunrises and sunsets.
like no other place on earth.

For
the record Hector the hammer head was 17 ft hung
out at the fuel pier. the real big ones were off the
reef at Tide Haul. 12 to 15 ft from dorsal to tail
fin. scary fish I tell ya.

Always
wondered
how in the hell those C-5s stayed the air when landing
and taking off. they looked so slow.

Bob
Rodgers and Gordy, Vince and the rest of the band were
great. Diego burger sucked just as bad as the Brits.
Got put on report for throwing killer washers at the
chickens while I was on swimming pool watch. that's
right swimming pool watch. that aught to tell you
something about that place.

Recently
attended
an MNCB 40 Alpha Co reunion outside St Louis Mo 2
weeks ago and the stories were great. they are talking
about another one next year. if anyone is interested
go to FTN40.ORG you will find lots of compadres there.

If
anyone knows how to get in touch with Bob Rodgers and
the others from the band we would like to hear from
them at FTN40.ORG for the next reunion.

My_Quest
= Your "lol"s & "lmao"s; VT_of_a_Swallow = 3.815
fps when I'm eating mint choc. chip ice cream;
My_Warstory = When I had completed the courses for
various avionics used on the A-6E Intruder with my
training squadron, VA-122, at NAS Whidbey Island, WA,
my fleet squadron, the Boomers of VA-165, was already
deployed as an element of CVW-9 aboard USS
Constellation on Gonzo Station at the height of the
Iranian Hostage Crisis. The lengthy journey to
join my new shipmates began at Travis AFB in northern
California. The 1st leg was a 17 1/2 flight to
NAS Cubi Pt. with stopovers in Hawaii &
Guam. While awaiting transport to DGAR, I was
more than happy to get my 1st taste of the legendary
hospitality of Olongapo City for a week and a
half. My flight to this British version of a
tropical paradise 7 degrees south of the equator
arrived in the dead of night. Myself and 3 fellow
travelers were assigned racks in half-finished
transient quarters where the nearest source of potable
water was little more than a meager 1/4 mi. stroll
away. We were awakened by the lovely sing-song
voice and humorous mock-anger of a PO3 from the SeaBee
unit we would be working with during our day-long
layover. The heavily-shaded path along which he
escorted us to the chow hall for breakfast did little
to prepare us for DGARs extreme heat. After chow,
when the temperature was a measly 95 degrees, we were
introduced to the SeaBee grunts we were to pair off
with for the day. My partner/construction guru
was Hank, a 5'9" 210 lb. good ol' gorilla from Georgia
whom everybody called "Wanker", I presume as some sort
of backhanded tribute to our British hosts. As
the air temperature neared its zenith, when the 100
degree mark was but a fading memory, I found myself
lodged firmly between a rock and a hard
place. Having spent the previous 7 months in the
great state of Washington, where folks don't tan, they
rust, do I expose my pale torso to the fierce
equatorial sun, or do I continue to wear the clingy,
sweat-saturated t-shirt that was my sunscreen? I opted
to keep my shirt on, rather than risk severe 2nd
degree burns to my chest and back. My most vivid
recollection of my brief visit to DGAR occurred when
"Wanker" approached a rather formidable-looking stack
of 12' 4"x4" wooden beams, squatted next to it,
wrapped his arms--which were literally as thick as my
legs--around prox. 10 or 12 of the stock lengths, and
stood up (lifting with his legs, not his back),
hefting the load as if it were made of
Styrofoam. He then called over his shoulder for
my 5'7" 155 lb. self to "get the other
end." Yeah, right! I chuckled and suggested
he call the marines for this one, 'cause that was NOT
going to happen. Fortunately, and thankfully, he
conceded my inferior upper body strength and scaled
the burden back to a more manageable 7 or 8 beams.

December
1980 - February 1981

Aboard
the USS JASON AR-8

Kevin
L. Mackey <ar8jason@hotmail.com>

I
was an ICMan (Interior Communications Electrician)
aboard the USS Jason AR-8, US Navy Heavy Repair Ship
for WestPac/Indian Ocean Cruise 80/81. Our ship
was in the midst of flight ops / Vertical
Replenishment (practice) and a radio call came in on
the bridge from the Helo pilot. He wanted to know if
we had a divers aboard. The Officer of the Deck told
them "yes, we are a repair ship." He them to call
for a diver to come to the bridge and get on the
radio. The officer in charge of the divers came up and
the pilot told them that there was a shark in the
waters below the Jason. The diver said, "Of course
their is, this is the Indian Ocean." He said "you
don't understand, there is a huge shark setting on
your anchor." "Every time we fly out it is there."

We
would from time to time go to the pier to load
supplies and return to anchor, and the shark would
take up position on our anchor. ... Since we were the
USS Jason, named after the Greek Mythology "Jason and
the Argonauts" the shark was given the name Hector. It
was so identified with the Jason that when we returned
to the US, and then changed home port to Pearl Harbor,
I was still aboard, late 1981 when a sailor from the
photo shop came up to me and said, "Mackey, you were
on WestPac 80/81 checking a clipboard, and he handed
me an manila envelope from a stack he was carrying and
said, "Complements of the Admiral of the 11th Fleet."
I asked what it was, and he said he didn't know, that
a photo had come in and they were told to print copies
and deliver them to everyone that had been aboard for
WestPac 80/81. I open the envelope and a copy of the
picture that appears at the top of your Hector Page
was in the envelope. It took me to realize that the
photo was of Hector.

He
was given his name in Very late 1980 (we arrived in
early December). ... He was still alive in 1981, when
we left in late February.

He
was so connected to the USS Jason, that the Admiral
sent us the picture, 6 months or so after we left
Diego Garcia. ... It seems odd that the photo claims
an earlier origin. If that was true, why was it not
circulating when we were there, and why did the
Admiral send it at Navy expense to us long after we
left?

A
couple of years later, I heard some sailors were sent
with the mission of catching Hector. The sailor that
told me the story, told me they caught him with a
steel cable using a motor LCM and an electric wench.
The pulled him aboard and killed him. He said the
measurements were 28 feet long and he gave the weight,
which I have long forgot.

Some
of guys in December were fishing from the fantail and
were getting bites, but the line would snap soon after
the bite. They figured out they needed to use steel
leaders, and then they pulled up a small hammer head.
Just as they got it to the top oof the water, Hector
surfaced and ate it.

My_Warstory
= I often look back on those years of service and
think about the true friendships made with some of the
most sincere , honest, trustworthy and bravest people
I had ever and have ever met. It was an honor to have
known these folks and served with them. And when it
was time to party we were unmatched!! Some of my
greatest memories and fun times were in and with NMCB
1. CMDR YANKOOP & co. "THE FIRST AND
FINEST"

1980
- 1982

Name
= Tom GIllespie = tomgillespienmcb40@Yahoo.com

Citizenship
= USA; Service = USN; Outfit = NMCB40

My_Warstory
= I remember landing on Diego Garcia in November,
1980. Thrown a duffel bag in the back of a jeep
and long lonely ride to Camp Cummings. Got stuck
in living quarters with Les Nebel and five other
degenerates that smoked dope. I remember putting
on my first set of boxing gloves and sparred with Nick
Groves. I boxed in that smoker and got my butt
kicked from one of the boys in the fleet. Got into a
fight (hard to believe) and went to my FIRST Captain's
Mast. Cost me money, extra duty and restrictions
but it was well worth it. My best buddy at that
time on the Island was DT2 Larry Maez. Rest in
Peace Bro. He died in November 2007 of a heart
attack. Played alot of softball but we weren't
quite as good as the Killer Bees. Went back to CA
home port in March, 1981. Was on the Forty Flyers
Softball Team. Made it to Semi-finals and Home
Port Championship but lost on last game and was
inducted into NMCB 40 Hall of Fame later that
year. Went back to Diego September, 1981, on a
debt with Charlie Company where I met Daryl Hopkins,
Rich (Pierre Cardin and all Forty Thrasher Softball
members. Wonder where Lt. Rosmond (aka Uncle Rossie -
lol) is? Hey Daryl, you did beat the F@ck out of
Korzenaski that night. I was the one who dumped
the shampoo and soap on his bed and he blamed you -
and it was on.......it was a classic! Went to another
Captain's Mast and the Captain told me that I was
taking FIGHTING and FORTY a little too
serious. More money lost and demoted to
E2. How can you go into the Navy as an E3 and get
out as an E2. Just ask me - I know. Went to
a detachment in Italy and pounded the shit out of a
Marine in a boxing tournament. Remember that
DHop? How about you Russ Nichols? We worked
together by the runway in Sigonella. Went to
Captain's Mast there - couldn't reduce me in rank
anymore so they took more money....Hey you guys,
wonder where Allen Rounds is these days? He
always thought he was Satan. What a f@ckin
nut! Wish all you guys the best - send me an
email!

1980
1981

John
Paine = sam1776adams@yahoo.com

Citizenship
= USA; Service = USN; Outfit = NSF

My_Quest
= World domination! VT_of_a_Swallow = 10.12321
meters per second

My_Warstory
= I replied to a sailor here but his email is not good
so I thought I would post this similar DG boat stary
here for all. March 1980 - Feb 1981

I
worked at I-site as a generator operator
(EMFN), I was to start my watch at like 4Pm if I
remmember soooo myself, a guy I recall as Twiggy, and
lastly Vargas rented a 16 foot boston whaler boat from
the marina that morning

The
day was sunny but the swells were 4-6 feet high and we
had troule getting the sheet metal guards back on the
motor (had to remove to wind the stupid pull rope) so
after we got it started and together we decided NOT to
shut it off again. We set off to try our luck chasing
porpoise and Vargas was gonna try fishing with his
huge pole setup.

I
was on the tiller as I was the only one with boating
experience and away we went, we stopped after about
and hour in about the exact center of the lagoon.....
left the motor running while in neutral. Vargas tried
fishing but had forgot his sinker but we happened to
see the "U" bolt in the clevice that was part of the
motor safety teather line so it was lowered away in
hopes of a juicy fish. After 30 minutes or so we gave
up on fishing and were getting ready to go when Vargas
said"Twiggy....Do you want to try driving the boat?"
he said "sure" so I explained the 1/4 turn throttle to
him and how to steer.

Twiggy
sits down, shifts into forward and turs the
throttle.... FULL and the little boat shoots forward.
We went right up a swell and flew off the top....
Twiggy freaks out and tuns the tiller and as soon as
we hit the boat veers violently full left full speed
and right back up the same swell x2. We went up that
swell 3 times when we heard the motor racing cause it
was out of the water. In fact... is was off the boat
also and made a rude gurgle noise as it sank to the
depths.

There
we were, shipwrecked LOL. we had 2 oars on board set
up for oar locks but saddly the boad was not equiped
for oar locks. We tried rowing the few miles to shore
to no avail.... with blisters it was a certain
failure. We were in the current headed for the mouth
of the lagoon. We were not equiped with correct
clothing, sun screen, ciggs, water, beer... bad shape.

We
drifted for several hours while rotating issue
T-shirts from body to head , legs ect to try to slow
down the sun burnning that was a certainty. Finally we
drifted opposite to where the mike boat offload OPS
were going on and we yelled and waved
and received a casual wave hello from a friendly
sailor on the ship.... drifting on. There was a fast
attack sub slowly cruising the lagoon, all hands were
in dress whites having a ceremony on her hull, again
we screamed and waved, they changed course and again
we were alone.

Almost
to the small islands the waves were getting ALOT
bigger we heard the sound of an engine. It was a
launch coming right at us, soon it pulled up and it
was the Chief from the marina.... sees we have no
motor and gives a disgusted look... throws a very
SHORT rope and we tie off and he guns it. The rooster
tail is landing BEHIND our little boat.

We
arrive back at the marina around 6PM or so, my chief(a
brit) from the power plant was there... we were long
overdue. My chief asked "How was the motor running?" I
said it ran great ..all the wat to the bottom! He said
" I just rebuilt that motor last week!" I felt small
all of the sudden.

We
had to fill out some paperwork for the lost motor and
I had to go to finish my watch. I later pulled water
blisters off the size of peaches... took a week before
I got over the sun sickness. We survived but we
stranded some 9 hours, cigs ran out... sucked!

My
nose looked reptilian for some time due to the
sunburn, the sun can be deadly, cheers to all my
friends here and there. John Paine :)

P.S. Hello,
I
was just at he DG web site and saved a pic that had
Robbie Burns in it.... wow! I signed up twice for the
web site with stories, does anybody have contact data
for Robbie Burns or his running mate Scouse Eded (the
only name I knew him by)? I was the EM that was
assigned to the power plant and stood many late night
watches n the switch gear with those two guys and have
been trying to find them for some time now.
Thanks John Paine, DG survivor 80-81

Here's
his earlier submission:

March
1980 THRU Feb 1981

John
Paine = sam1776adams@yahoo.com Outfit =
NavSupFac worked at I-site power plant My_Quest =
LOL, to find some lost friends!

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
10 meters per second give or take Hahaha

My_Warstory
= I was 18 when I arrived at the rock, I rememember
walking to the town from the air strip with my duffle
on my back and these TAN CB types said "Welcome to
butthole hill" I though..... Great, just great :( I at
fist was bummed out but later came to fit in and
enjoyed (kind of) the different surroundings and the
guys. At that time Diego was still pretty small, we
had splinterville area for the overflow lodging and I
had the luck of living on a cot in the gym for the
first week or so.... I still remember the heat.

I
later got into a quad room that was straight across
from the chow hall front door, I had some cool
roommates and friends.

Shannon
Bussard
room mate, Very unique laugh and had a broken arm from
falling off a generator.

Bill
Smith was down the row, cool guy that had his wife
send him a box with her panties LOL I can still hear
him as he would peek in.

Duke,
he was a fireman that was sent to Hong Kong after drug
conviction.

Domingo,
First class Filipino.. kept to himself alot but a nice
guy.

Chuck,
(First Class) he was a CB at the power plant and was
one of the smartest electricians I ever knew... I have
stayed in the electrical field as a contractor all
these years. Current Electrical Contracting serving NW
Arkansas located in Kansas OK.

Louis
Sardinas (Sardinis?), also Filipino and cool roommate.

Scouse
EDEN, British sailor.... cant remember his real first
name. I miss talking to him.

Robbie
BURNS, British
sailor from Liverpool .... miss knocking the Queen and
having him get mad.

Kenny
Walrath, engineman... I still am in contact with him
after all these years.

Calvin
HILL, Knew him from bootcamp... would like to chat
again.

MOUSE,
A CB type in my quad, sgtarted his room on fire once
via a cig LOL, he would do his inspecion wich boots
that were varnished lol, he would put them on at the
inspection sight as to no crack the finish.

Vargas,
we lost a boat motor in the lagoon off a 16 foot
smaalll boat.... arg, so sunburned after that.

Twiggy,
same as above with the boat, cant recall their last
names.

LOL,
I used to razz all the flippers that were there
working on the island. Low and behold I went back
there to the PI a few times and am now married to the
most wonderful btfl filipina!! Thank you USN for
introducing me to the PI, I will one day soon have a
home there also.

Any
of you guys that know/knew me feel free to email and
maybe get together, I live now in SE Oklahoma and
ewould be jazzed to hook up!

John
Paine

Dates_Aboard
= 1980-81

Name
= Sailor Sal = salvatore@oems.ch

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= Merchant Marine

Outfit
= Heavy Lift ship bring in the goodies

My_Quest
= Get a copy of the video of my Hair cut

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
Africian or European

My_Warstory
= OK you all gotta remember the fund raising navel
relief festival..... I way the crazy sailor who
auctioned/donated my hair to the relief fund, the
brits won over the american forces, it seemed the
tables were turned when this aussie Brit Rep Amazon
layed down the last 100 bucks to take over the
auction, on the condition she was going to cut it
herself! when asked if she any experience in hair
cutting she replied, she sheared lots of sheep and
could not wait to get me between her legs and get
started, at that point the whole island went wild!,
she would cut off locks and people in the crowd we
attaching the lock to the caps to sport a ponytail,
she cut off half of the hair on one side and half of
the beard on the other and left me like that, until
another brit took over and shaved me clean! one
comment way from jesus to krishna in in two hours
flat.... well it was for a good cause!

287
days on the island, it was a real experience

Dates_Aboard
= 1980-1981

Name
= Brian
Sharkey = sharkey@sharkeystavern.com

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= NAVSUPFAC Public works Transportation dept My_Quest
= I.m here to show my family what their Dad did
in the navy VT_of_a_Swallow = My_Warstory = I remember
some guy off a sub tender knocked out three guys with
one punch each. the em club drained out all Seabee as
they and chased that poor sob all the way to the fleet
pier before he was taken into custody by shore patrol
and sent to spend the night in the brig for his own
safety. I also remember the our fist ship off load
using the new sub pier. I was driving a tractor
trailer, unloading connex boxes and hauling them to a
staging area and returning to the pier with MTs. I
pulled up next to the ship and waited while the
Phillipino longshoremen hooked the box to the ships
crane, I was hanging out the window talking someone
who was handing out box lunches when I realized that
the long shoremen had failed to disconnect the box
from the trailer when my truck and I began to be
hoisted in the air about 20 feet I leaped from the cab
and landed 2 feet from the edge of the pier. needless
to say i spent the rest of the day at the em club.

I
remember the photo of Hector used to hang in the
diveshop where the cement ships used to discharge back
in 1980. I was an original crew member on the
USNS JUPITER, and afterwards worked for Maersk doing
the same job as Able Seaman, then Bosun. Worked
in and out of the lagoos from 1980 to 1999. Thank
you for maintaining the website. I wish I could
get a shore based job there doing something. I
miss the place. Andre.

Dates_Aboard
= 1980-1981

Name
= Oscar Ward

submit_by
= akaoward@aol.com

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= Navcomsta (R-site)

My_Quest
= Skid the Mid one more time!

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
An unladen swallow may fly at around 11meters per
second My_Warstory = Interesting place the rock was, I
remeber my time as a mess crank durring 1980 I was in
charge of making the bug juice and ice-cream after a
while and the seabees begain calling me bugboy even
away from the galley. Altho working the shifts at the
comsta where after the last day of mid watch would
would "skid the mid" meaning stay up after we got off
and drink till we passed out usually on the
beach. Anybody got any MOJO my cup is empty...lol

1980

Russ
Young = hodabe@sbcglobal.net

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= bravo company

My_Quest
= sober by 2nd gear

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
depends how far he drops after i kill it

My_Warstory
= Wow it was a haze. Stayed drunk most of the time.
Lots of parties. Remember it was the best fishing ever
. If I could only remember what I caught. Staying
up all night drinking scotch and getting singled out
by the chief at muster in the morning.

My
name is Carol Nunes. my brother, Dave Nunes,
NMCB5, was stationed on d.g. in 1980. i am
looking for his buddies who served with him on the
island "where the elite meet". i can be reached
at gmamadog@yahoo.com. thanks for your help and
thanks for this great site!!

Aztec
Reprographics

3821
Falmouth Road Unit 6

Marstons
Mills,
MA 02648

508-420-1880

508-420-0130
(fax)

Hi,

My
Name is Kenny Greco and I served on DG in both '79-80
and '81, some of the best memories of my life. I'm
looking for a good friend of mine named Kenny Horn who
served '79-80. I would like to get back in touch with
him if possible. Please email Pinscher319@gmail.com if
anyone has a clue about the other Kenny.

1980

Carol
Nunes = gmamadog@hotmail.com

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= NMCB 5

My_Quest
= to find the guys my brother dave nunes served with
VT_of_a_Swallow = My_Warstory = my brother dave nunes
was on d-gar in 1980. i am looking for anyone who
served with him. his 50th birthday is this year
and we would like to surprise him with some of his old
seabee's!! please contact me if you served with
dave.

1980

Richard
Riordan
<riordan_199@yahoo.com>

I
was on Diego Garcia 2 times. 1974-1975 with
MCB-10 Alpha Company and again with Naval Support
Facility from 1980-1981. I also have pictures to
back up my claim.

march
1980 - june 1981

Name
= cm3 voss

submit_by
= bobby_voss@hotmail.com

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= public works alapha co/ wrecker driver

My_Quest
= still alive

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
speed limit 35

My_Warstory
= I got delay for 6 days waiting on a flight over to
the rock. Great Time!!!!!! After arrival I wonder why
I was the choosen one for this duty. At first I was
shocked. Then I got into the swing of things and loved
it. I hated Shore Patrol at the EM Club. I got into
more fight with drunkin shipmate of the
SPEAR!!!!! OH I almost forgot to mention my hats off
to the guys of the fight _______ forty. I ruin more
uniforms in 6 hours of watch at the club. Thanks guys.
Truth be known it something to look forward
to. When i wasnt working i was drinking ice cold
bud or hot oly gold depending if the ice machine
worked. Ship off load milvans of hot beer and
cigarettes waiting to hit the island. I never figure
how you can open a pack of cigaretes and the white
paper had brown spots all over them. Just thinking
about them brings that nasty taste back. Grilling a
bean burger still cant figure out how they manage to
call them hambuger.

My_Warstory
= So cool to have found this site. Read lots of the
stories some of the blotterheads wrote here. Dodge
City was a friggin way cool experience that I
personally have remembered and cherished for all these
years. Some days did suck, but the place was just
awesome if you made it that way. Most of you guys will
remember me as the one who ran the beach alot. I
worked the barracks for a bit throwing rebar, then
they sent me out to the crusher to work with Chavez
climbing that flipping hopper and getting scorched.
Worked with "A" welding some engine blocks and the
piperat team with Givens and company on that flipping
burning hot tarmac area we were in. Fucking Hordorf
breaking the cherry picker and Paquin. I need a year
book type thing so I can faces and remember more
names. I remember a bunch but not as many as I should.
I remember that dickweed Jimmy something or another
got Vasquez busted for the "cid", we were ready to
feed his ass to the sharks in the lagoon for that one.
Bus, Paquin, Bob and the Band, Randy Dailey and so
many more. Couple of dudes I could do without also,
like Bob Wright, what a dickhead. Saw elsewhere on the
web where Seabees have local chapters and a national
reunion. That would be cool to get all Bees that spent
time on DG together and have Bob and the boys rock
some fuckin kickass FREEBIRD like they did on the hump
party....

Nowadays,
I am a real estate broker in Central Florida,
concentration in commercial. Things are still going
well even in this economy. I'm optimistic about it
all.

I
had kidney failure in the last several years and go to
dialysis 3x a week now while waiting for a kidney
transplant. I also do patient advocacy for ESRD
patients such as myself. My kidneys failed in all
places, China ... LOL ... almost didn't make it home.

Great
catching up. Feel free to email those who might
remember me! Laterzzz

April
1980-April
1981

Leroy
Lawrence jlawr914@ec.rr.com

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN Seabees

Outfit
= PWD

My_Quest
= to catch up with old friend and try to remember.

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
Depends on the size of the worm

My_Warstory
= Just found your site. very cool. just remembering
some of the times there. driving up to Isite seeing
how many crabs we could hit with our
van. Partying everynight and day.

Taking
the rowboat out to the middle of the sewage lagoon to
burn one cause we thought that would be a safe
place. so many memories so little time.

Would
like to here from anyone that remembers.

take
care

Seabees
Can Do!!!!!!!!!!!

Dates_Aboard
= THE SUMMER OF 80

GARY
FARMER FARMBOSDAONE@AOL.COM

Citizenship
= USA

Service
= USN

Outfit
= 11A - SHIPFITTER SHOP

My_Quest
= UNCOVER THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE

VT_of_a_Swallow
=
ABOUT 80 MPH IF I'M THROWIN' ONE A SHORT DISTANCE AT A
BRICK WALL DOESN'T GET MORE TREMINAL THAN THAT !

My_Warstory
= THE JAX DROPPED ANCHOR IN THE LAGOON THE SUMMER OF
80 AND THE WORLD THAT WAS DIEGO GARCIA BECAME VERY
CLEAR.....FANTASY ISLAND. THERE A FEW THINGS THAT I
WAS AWARE OF CONCERNING "HECTOR" THE HAMMERHEAD SHARK.
THE AJAX SHIP'S PHOTOGRAPHER HAD TAKEN THE DIFINITIVE
PHOTO OF HECTOR FROM THE AFT SECTION OF HECTOR
SWIMMING ALONGSIDE AND JUST BELOW THE WATERLINE OF THE
CAPTAIN'S GIG, A SMALL CABIN CRUISER, AND I BECAME
"THE" SHARK HOOK MAKER OF NOTE. TO MY KNOWLEGE ONLY
ONE SHARK WAS EVER BROUGHT ON BOARD VIA A FARMER MADE
GRAPPLIN' HOOK. THE MASTER AT ARMS HAD TO CLEAR THE
SHIPFITTER SHOP OF GAWKERS AS WE WERE ATTEMPTING TO
HAUL THE GNASHIN' BASTARD INTO THE SHPO VIA THE POWER
WINCH BUT HE PUT A STOP TO THAT BUT I DID GET A
SOUVENIER TOOTH THAT I HAD MADE INTO A PENDANT. THE
SHARK WAS HAULED AFT ON A WEATHER DECK AND INVICERATED
BY THE BLOOD THIRSTY FEW, JAWS FANS, NOT DOUBT. THE
ATOLL WAS NOT WITHOUT IT'S ADVENTURE ESPECIALLY IN THE
LAGOON SNORKLING ! THANK GOD FOR LOW TIDE AND HUGE
HEADS OF BRAIN CORAL TO EVADE THE ANKLE BITIN' SHARKS
MAKING DINING FORAYS IN THE LAGOON. THE COCONUT
GAUNTLET GETTING FROM ONE SIDE OF THE ATOLL TO THE
OTHER MADE ONE VERY AWARE OF FALLING OBJECTS CRASHING
DOWN ON YOUR GOURD. THE BEER WAS COLD BUT NOT NEARLY
ENOUGH IN VOLUME UNLESS YOU GOT THE CHITS FROM A
NON-DRINKER. NO WIMMEN, EXCEPT ENS. SHIELDS TO LOOK AT
AND THE USO TROUPES ( MISS AMERICA !) WORKED ON SHIPS
ALONGSIDE AND A COUPLE OF MERCHANT/MILITARY SUPPLY
SHIPS. THOSE GUYS ATE LIKE KINGS ! I ALWAYS
VOLENTEERED FOR ANY TRIP OVER TO WORK AS THE SURF N
TURF AND BREAKFAST FARE WAS GREAT. THE FISHIN' FLOAT
WAS A GAS ! A SUPPLY OF BEER AND FOOD AND HOT FISHIN'
ACTION TOOK THE EDGE OFF THE OTHERWISE BORING DAYS.
THE DIEGO GARCIA SWIMMIN' POOL WAS A CRYSTAL CLEAR
POOL OF WATER DILUTED CLORINE THAT ATE YOUR EYES OUT
OF THEIR SOCKETS BUT COULDN'T STOP THE EIGHT INCHES OF
ALGAE FROM GROWIN' ALONG SIDES AND BOTTOM. THE TENNIS
COURT WAS AN ASPHALT SKILLET IN THE SUMMER SUN AND THE
BALL PARK WAS DEFINATELY A "NO SLIDE ZONE". THE BRITS
WERE A GENERAL PAIN IN THE ASS AS THEY SEARCHED FOR
"CONTRABAND" EVERYTIME WE SET FOOT ASHORE. PLAYBOY AND
EASY RIDER MAGAZINES WERE GOLD ! THE SEA BEES WERE
OKAY AS LONG AS THEY HAD ENOUGH ALCOHOL AND DIDN'T
LOSE ALL THEIR MONEY TO YOU IN THE INFREQUENT POKER
GAMES. THE BRASS STEERED CLEAR OF EM TERRITORY AS WE
OUTNUMBERED THEM AND WITH A SNOOTFULL OF LIQUID
COURAGE SHOWED 'EM NO RESPECT AS WITNESSED BY ALL THE
XO / CAPTAIN MAST'S. THE TRIPS TO AND FROM THE D.G.
PIER WAS NOT WITHOUT IT'S ADVENTURE EITHER.

REGULAR
SALT WATER SOAKINGS COMING AND GOING DID LITTLE FOR
YOUR ATTITUDE OR BUZZ WHILE TRANSITTING.

THERE
IS LITTLE MORE I CAN ADD TO MY TALE EXCEPT IT WOULD
HAVE BEEN A GREAT TO BE WITH WIMMEN AND SOME TASTY
BUDS. I FOUND THIS WEBSITE BY ACCIDENT WHILE LOOKING
FOR HOW D.G. IS TODAY....I DON'T RECOGNIZE IT AS THE
D.G. I KNEW AND I'M GLAD THEY BROUGHT THE WORLD OF
D.G. UP TO DATE AS IT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT OF DUTY
STATIONS I'D EVER EXPERIENCED. A SHOUT OUT TO THE 1980
CREW OF THE AJAX !

MEMORIES
ARE FADING WITH AGE BUT I CAN, ON OCCASION RECALL THE
GUYS OF 11-A AND SMILE. THERE IS AN AJAX ASSOCIATION
LOOK IT UP AND MAKE CONTACT WITH OLD SHIPMATES IF YOU
WANT [ed note: http://ussajaxassociation.org/].
LATER.....FARMER HAS LEFT THE
BUILDING......................

80-81
81-82

NAME
= harry kern

E-MAIL
= harryelectric@comcast.net

SERVICE
= seabees

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
ce3

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

MY
WARSTORY = First of all - What a trip finding
this fuckin' site ! I remember bending a shit load of
rebar and "goin down the road " with Hambone
(Hamilton) and gettin' hammered pretty often with Roy
Childers , Les Nebel , Gary Bohnencamp and Pat "Bus"
Bussanmas then that fuckstick Bobby Wright would come
into the hooch and lay on top of someone.I still talk
to Albert Parkhurst. He didn't make it to Diego
because he crashed his bike just before deployment.

Anyway
I remember one night (little) Howie Belssing getting
so hammered he got in a fight with Foley all because
he wouldn't back off when Foley asked him if he was
lookin' for trouble after Howie said somethin' stupid
. Foley hit Howie one time Howie hit the pier on his
back knocked out eyes wide open and he was snoring all
at the same time ! I felt sorry for Howie, well for a
second and then I had to laugh my ass off. I
think that was one of the Jungle Juice party nights
when Dave Towe got so hammered he pulled his dick out
(again) so I grabbed it and took him for "walk" it was
funny as hell because he didn't think anyone would do
it. And I remember : Y.C.J.C.Y.O.C.O.B.??? Your
curiosity just cost you one case of beer and havin to
beer bong a six pack ! Thank God I/we survived.

April
thru July 1980

NAME
= Rex Chilton

MY
QUEST = To get one of those blasted chickens

VT
of a SWALLOW = all the way into next week

E-MAIL
= rchilton@uabmc.edu

NATIONALITY
= bama

SERVICE
= AF

UNIT
= Boom Operator, tanker task force

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
Ssgt then, retired now

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = This is a No-Shit Drinking Story

MY
WARSTORY = Well,we arrived at diego from Gaum just
after the Iran rescue mission, which sadly went very
south. Thanks Jimmy. So we thought, ok pack up and
head back to Guam, Wrong! Stayed for a couple months
doing missions with the guys off the "Connie and Ike.
Great bunch of pilots.

Before
leaving the rock we were told to buy as much bottled
beer and red man that we could, the seabees needed
supplies. So we did. Once on Diego a duce and ahalf
met us on the ramp and we sold them back our
"supplies" at our cost. Now I have read where guys
bought cases of beer for 20 bucks but not from us, all
we wanted was our per-diem money back (of course we
kept enough beer for ourselves). This turned out to be
a very good thing to do, the seabees treated us great.
Spent many hours at the E6 peir with Don Woods and the
guys form the 133rd out of Gulf Port MS rasing all
kinds of hell. My good bud and great boom, Kevin Doyle
and I have talked about our time on Diego. Hope those
guys from the 133rd are still kicking and doing well.

1980's

Phil
Furze <tatahn2@yahoo.com>

After
a 25 year career (retired in 1994) I still have
nightmares, of the time I was in transit from Oman to
Japan. Back in the 80's I was in the Navy and I had to
suffer 7 days in 'DaGar'. The warm lagoon waters,
the sandy beach, the trip to visit "Katie", drinking
beer with the Aussies. It was horrible!

P
Furze

MSG
USAR (ret)

1980
to 1984 RBRM - 1993 with BJS

NAME
= John L

MY
QUEST = Returning just for the Expat club sunsets and
Margaritas

E-MAIL
= johnjel1234@yahoo.com

NATIONALITY
= USA

RANK/RATE/JOB
= Contractor
with RBRM and BJS

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Want to Return When the First REAL
Club Med Opens

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = After having been gone from the island
for approx. 10 years I took a job with BJS to see how
Diego had developed. I had been there from 1980
with RBRM during the construction years.

In
1982 the Navy approached RBRM and told us they had
10,000lbs of frozen lobster tail they wanted to
sell. Since we had our own food budget we bought
the lobster and started Surf & Turf every Friday
night at the expat mess hall.

When
I returned in 1993 I was in the O club and noticed
that someone was getting a lobster dinner for their
birthday. I thought "No it couldn't be the same
lobster we bought in "82." Guess what! It had no
taste and was really tough.

So
much for lobster at the "O' in 1993. By now I would
think it is all gone.

1980

From: Chris
Kelley
<whotmewory@nc.rr.com>

28
Feb 2008

What
a great thing it was to see you have Hector on the
web.

I
believe that the photo that George Wilson scanned for
you is one taken in November, 1980 from the fantail of
the USS Puget Sound AD-38 by the fantail watch or
someone with him. We were stationed there in the Fall
/ Winter of 1980 to relieve the Dixon. I actually saw
a hard copy of this when our Master Diver Chester
Stanley showed it to us. He was so proud of it he
would not share copies.

The
British customs officials at the time had lots of
anecdotal stories about him and told us that British
and American sailors from WWII has seen or heard of
Hector during the war; which made him quite old in
1980. In a 1970s / 80s book called "Shark!" the author
insisted hammerheads got no longer than nine (or
thirteen?) feet long. I forget which, but after having
seen Hector, I was sure wishing there was a way to
tell the author about the Diego Garcia shark.

One
thing that struck me was the British stationed there
told us they had no record of Hector killing or
maiming any man. Funny, the British told us not to
swim in the lagoon; the Americans told us not to swim
in the open seas - or was it the other way around?
Anyway, we swam in both!

I
have a neat photo of some WWII guns on the beach where
we swam. I'll send them from home as work won't send
e-mails larger than a certain size.

The
reason swimming in the open ocean was frowned on were
the black tip reef sharks that populated the black
coral reefs on the slopes about 60-90 feet down. I
guess they were worried the sharks would wander up for
a nice bite of calf meat.

At
the time we were there, there were mostly crazed Sea
Bees, chickens and donkeys - and an army of coconut
crabs. Sleeping in the open screened huts on the [then
scarcely populated and untainted] island was a
lifetime experience. I wondered then at the future
when Hilton or the Sheraton would ruin the island, or
civilians from the PI would move there. Later, last
decade, I saw an Air Force film showing PI civilians
and barracks and enlisted quarters and...ugh! I am so
glad I got to see the place before that mess.

Thank
you for having this site on the INet!

Cheers!

Chris
Kelley, PE

Professional
Engineer
/ Hydraulic Specialist

Apex,
NC

Former
MM2/DV, R5 Division Dive Locker

USS
PUGET SOUND, AD-38

1980

David
Semenke <blake@execpc.com>

I
was stationed at Deigo Garcia in 1980 for six months
while my ship the USS Emory S Land visited it. I was
temporarily assigned to the customs division on the
island. While there we took part in operations
related to the failed Hostage rescue in Iran. The
transport plane carrying something, I'm not sure what,
landed there and only certain people were allowed on
board.

I
saw some pretty interesting stories while there, one
was about a former soldier who was in Vietnam and was
well decorated - Congressional Medal of Honor and was
carrying it with him. He joined the Navy and was being
transferred to his ship by way of Diego Garcia as a
seaman. As I was going thru his things I found a
lump inside of his pants cuff and confiscated the
trousers as possible contraband. It was soon
determined that the material was harmless but still he
missed his flight out. He was also livid cursing
an Air Force Sargeant in the Phillipines, telling me
that the guy was jealous that a seaman had the Medal
of honor while the Sargeant had twenty years in and
nothing to show but good conduct. He missed his
flight in the Phillipines, as well, while waiting for
the Sargeant to return his belongings. He felt
the Sargeant took too much time and must have planted
it there. I don't know what happened after that
but he said that when he reached his final destination
he was going to have a chat with the Captain to see
what could be done about the Sargeant.

Also
while I was wandering around the island one day I
found the anti aircraft guns but I was puzzled by the
remanants of a structure nearby. It looked as if the
foundation was all that was left with steps leading
down into it. In the center was a concrete slab
that rose up to the height of the walls with a base
that looked like a pyramid and very little room to
walk around it. I was wondering if you know anything
about it.

Another
thing that I want to mention, and I personally feel
that someone was pulling my leg, is that according to
rumor a Japanese soldier was found on the island long
after world war II and did not know the war was over.
He actually killed himself before they could get him.
Of course this is just a rumor and frankly I don't
believe it.

1980/81

NAME
= Russ Nichols = russn1@knology.net

MY
QUEST = To find and "remember" old friends

VT
of a SWALLOW = zzzoooooommmm

NATIONALITY
= White

SERVICE
= Seabees

UNIT
= MCB Fightin' Fuckin' 40

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
6 damn years and still left as BU 3rd class!

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Want to Return When the First REAL
Club Med Opens

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I was shipped to 40 outta A school in 80.40
had just already got to The island, so I came
late by a month. But 7 months were a big plenty.
It's a wonder I'm alive. I was put in a "hooch" with 3
others I knew from school, Greg, and a couple others
I'll have to look up. Put on the "Hot Tar Crew". With
one I recognized Wade Hovey, Kees Peer, along with
others. All quite foggy yet. Need others to refresh my
memory.

My
story was, not long after I got there. My friends, and
all the new friends, all were partying one
night,(imagine that), and at that hootch, they had a
sheet of "Micky Mouse" acid. Never tried it till that
night, they talked me into it, so after a bit, someone
had the great idea to go for a walk to the beach,,,
they took us to the jungle, and "Ditched"
us! Then once we decided we were lost, and
freaking out, we started what we thought was back to
camp. The "older" guys that ditched us, now were
hiding behind trees, and scaring the shit outta us. I
was never so glad to get back to camp, and back to my
hootch. Never done acid since. But don't
underestamate me, we all drank, and smoked lots of
"Beaners" hash, or partied with Loui Rico
(R.I.P.) And who can forget the girls off the
ship that ended up in one of the circles. Lines
of men. Never me though!

June
1980 and Feb 1982

NAME
= Edd Keudell

MY
QUEST = The Grail...no the Ring

VT
of a SWALLOW = 94 knots

E-MAIL
= mapperhd@msn.com

NATIONALITY
= American

SERVICE
= USN Submarines

UNIT
= SSN 694

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SK2/SS

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

MY
WARSTORY = I remember pulling along side the Ajax and
them lowering the brow to our deck. When some of their
guys came over to attach power and whatever some of
them were so terrified of touching foot on a sub that
they crawled on their hands and knees.

On
my second glorious trip to the island with the most
pristine beach I've ever seen, I got drunk during a
softball game in the near-equatorial sun and had a
black out. Someone told me later I bitched out one of
the O-gangers back on my boat.

Rumor
has it that someone finally caught Hector...

1977
and 1980

NAME
= Rick Baptista

MY
QUEST = Who Knows

VT
of a SWALLOW = Who Knows

E-MAIL
= r.baptista@comcast.net

NATIONALITY
= White

SERVICE
= NMCB-40

UNIT
= Pipe rat; Crane crew; Batch Plant

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
EO3 to EOC

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = This is a No-Shit Drinking Story

MY
WARSTORY = What can I say! I stole the truck loaded
with Alpha Company, crashed the donkey gate and chased
them fucking brits down the road. To bad Barto
got caught. Sure was a long walk from the
plantation to t-Site. If it wasn't for the human chain
at the donkey gate the rest of us would'nt have got
caught. Well there you GO LT. Rock now you
know. Well he always knew but just couldn't prove
it. If Bll the Head didn;t hit that Brit with his
sneaker they might have let us go. Well thats one
story of many I can tell. Was a fun place and did
alot of drinking. Having the shits during Shipoff
load cause of bad Turkey Ala King. Looking for
Bad Bart; Dan Hosher; Ron Ried etc. Hey Dog Face
I thought that was in Newfoundland I broke your
back. Anyway I should be getting half that
check. For all that recall this story send me an
e-mail

From: cfonteno@peoplepc.com

To: easy501@zianet.com

Date: 23
Jan
2007, 08:56:52 PM

Subject: Diego
Garcia

All
Hail Dodge!

Love
the site and would like to be a member. I did T.A.D.
transit duty in the early days, 1980-81 on my way to
meet the USS Ranger for West Pac. Lived in
Splinterville while working with my Squadrons shore
detachment VS-37. Fond memories of the place. I even
have a picture of me next to the "Footprint of
Freedom" sign that was up between town and the
airfield. I'll share that with everyone upon
successfull citizenship to the Republic. Chuck
Fontenot

MY
QUEST = To tell the members of this group about my
daughter who served aboard LY SPEAR in Diego Garcia
1980.

VT
of a SWALLOW = Depends upon how big the drink is.

E-MAIL
= lilreddog1@Yahoo.com

NATIONALITY
= Caucasian, USA

SERVICE
= U.S. NAVY

UNIT
= Boatswain's Mate

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
E/2 or E/3. Deceased.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Other

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Other

MY
WARSTORY = My daughter, Andrea, was a member of the
crew of the L.Y. Spear, out of Norfolk, VA. Her ship
was called up during the Iranian Crisis in
1980. She was never where she was supposed to be
at the time to be there, she had more Captain's Mast's
than anybody else I know of. She wound up in the brig
and in the engine room, on bread and water, while in
Diego Garcia. But, she was a brilliant woman of 18 who
didn't know who she was. She could have attended
Annapolis, but puposely flunked the test so she could
follow in her father's footsteps (he was in the
Merchant Marine at the time)around the world. So, she
opted for a ship, and she got the SPEAR. She became
one of the first women Shellbacks on a non-combatant
vessel. Her father never became a Shellback, since he
was on non-navy ships while crossing, but he was an
Officer in the Naval Reserve, so Andrea saluted him
when they were together. Andrea was a sweet, kind, and
generous woman, who loved her family very much - maybe
that is why she screwed up her naval career and lasted
only two years until it was mutually agreed upon that
she exit the service. She was married, first marriage,
to Fred Cosier, who was aboard the LY SPEAR - has
anyone heard of him? or heard from him recently? He
doesn't know that our Andrea, at age 40, died of
breast, lung and brain cancer on July 19,2002. We miss
her terribly and these websites really contribute to
our well being. She is up in heaven now, looking down
upon all of you, all of us, sending nothing but golden
words to cover our heads as we plow along in life. If
you knew her, please send me an e-mail at:
Clara19126@msn.com - I am Trish Schiesser, her mother.
God Bless everyone of you.

1980

NAME
= lytelle john mcgowan

MY
QUEST = trying to piece it all together

VT
of a SWALLOW = unknown to myself

E-MAIL
= ljmcgowan56@charter.net

NATIONALITY
= white

SERVICE
= navy

UNIT
= uss ly spear weapons department

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
e4 busted to e1

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = as an ex army veteran, i joined the navy
for adventure and to help me cope with life. all that
drinking and smoking earlier in life made me quite an
onnery character. there i was stationed at norfolk on
the ly spear and then the iranians decided to take
some hostages. so we had to take a vacation in
paradice. i was known as mad mike cause i was always
angry and in trouble. it was rough going accross the
ocean because of rough seas and a lot of stuff got
tossed around on bourd. i wished i was more into
socialising because there were some pretty chicks
aboard and a lot of really great people. HELLO TO ALL
THOSE THAT REMEMBER ME. liberty boat duty was hell and
all there was to do at d. G. was to drink, bowl, eat
DEW BURGERS, and help the CB's build a park. back
on the ship, we serviced submarines and a one or two
surface ships. i finally ended my tour of duty at
norfolk...the captain giving me six months to live
because of my drinking and drugging.ireally needed
that kick in the rear to change the course of my life.
now i'm a succesful dishwasher at shoneys restaurant.
ahoy to all you mates that remember me.

1980

NAME
= MIKE SMOLLON

MY
QUEST = FIND OLD FRIENDS

E-MAIL
= MSMOLLON@AOL.COM

NATIONALITY
= USA

SERVICE
= MSC

UNIT
= LIBERTY-MSC CREW USNS RIGEL

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
COOK & BAKER

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = There I Was, Passed Out on The Beach

MY
WARSTORY = USNS RIGEL - MCS SHIP WE JUST SAILED INTO
DIEGO GARCIA MANY OF THE CREW LANDED ON SHORE FIRST TO
GET SOME COLD BEER! wE WENT FOR A SWIM AT THE BEACH
WHEN WE HEARD A HUGE BOOM THEN SMOKED BILLOWED FROM
OUR STACK. ONE OF THE OFFICERS WITH US 3RD ASST.
ENGINE DEPT. SAID WE MUST HAVE BLOWN A BOILER. THIS
MEANT DRY DOCK EITHER IN SUBIC OR SINGAPORE. I WISH I
COULD REMEMBER HIS NAME BUT HE WAS A PROUD IRISH
AMERICAN SO HE GOT DRUNK AND HOISTED HIS IRSH FLAG IN
PLACE OF THE BRITISH FLAG ON DIEGO. HE SPENT THE
REST OF HIS STAY IN THE BRITISH BRIG, HE SAID IT WAS
WORTH IT!

I'm
attaching for you a copy of a photo of the old W.W.II
Brit guns that were on the "foot print" back in 1980.
(editor's note - sorry Chris, I couldn't open the
attachment for some reason)

Diego
was much different then: SeaBees, Divers, rock crabs
and laws against sodomy of the goats and chickens! I
was a 2nd Class diver working on the pipelines there.
The Brits said not to dive outside the atoll; the
Americans said not to dive in the lagoon - so we dived
in both - netting black coral and urchin stings!

I
remember hoping - in the open, screen sided Quonset
huts we slept in then - that the Sheraton or Hilton
would never mar the little atoll.

I'm
glad I'm not ever going to visit the place as it has
been trashed now.

Cheers
from NC!

Chris
Kelley, USN, USAFR Ret.

NC
licensed Professional Engineer

Yadkinville,
NC
27055-8109

336-251-2018
(mobile)

whotmewory@triad.rr.com

1980

NAME
= bud downer

MY
QUEST = find old buddys

VT
of a SWALLOW = 2 mph

E-MAIL
= cjd8364@sru.edu

NATIONALITY
= american

SERVICE
= navy seebeas

UNIT
= cbmu 302

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
E-3 discharged in 1982 MY INTEREST IN DG IS
= My Time There is Lost in an Alcoholic Haze, Help Me
Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = i was detailed there from subic bay
pi. i remember the kill dozer episode' the
barracks burning the iranian hostage situation making
ice formaldahide flavored beer . there was the
beer drinking donkey coconut crabs and the best
snorkeling and fishing anywhere in the world. i
am from pittsburgh pa and the steelers won the
superbowl that year. the C-5s bringing in all the
helicopters they used for the rescue that went wrong.
sitting on generator watch in that train car i'm still
shaking.the whole time i was there i never ate in chow
hall it was that bad. some of the guys iremember where
tim thrasher ut, paul foley ce,paul perkins eo,oh my
head its hard to forget but if anyone remembers me
please contact me, still live in pittsburgh go
steelers. been a firefighter for 20 years its
great but whish i was still in, go figure.

1979-1982

NAME
= ed crays

MY
QUEST = find other NMCB3 seabees

VT
of a SWALLOW = Dimples from Subic

E-MAIL
= crayzys@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= Italian

SERVICE
= US Navy Seabee's

UNIT
= Naval Mobil construction battalion 3 gold team

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
EM3 equipment mechanic

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Want a Job as Far Away from My
Wife as Possible

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = Jolo's pics wanted, wheres the pic of
dimples Dave? Who remembers Florida club and the brown
derby?

1980

NAME
= Terry Monser

E-MAIL
= tmonser@comcast.net

NATIONALITY
= Mex-American

SERVICE
= Navy

UNIT
= Fightin Forty-B co.

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
ut3

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = So many to tell. We didn't know it then but
we had a great time. Buzz Sawyer turned me on to this
site. I still keep in touch with him. One of things I
remember was the half way party we had, everybody was
shit faced from the get go. There was a few of us that
got hold of some acid and I

decided,
since I was a veteran of many trips at my
previous duty station (NAS Fallon,NV), that I'd take 3
hits that day. So at the party I got used to reaching
into the cooler and taking beers got out of control
fucked up. the party ended and we move everything to
the em club. By this time I was in and out of reality,
so some of this is hazy. I started to reach over the
bar and into the cooler for beers and the bartender
was getting pissed. the MP's were called and I was led
away. some how I got away from them and spent the next
10 or 11 hours hiding from them. I would go into the
jungle for awhile and pop into one of the huts and
scream that eveyone was after me. I'd start freaking
out and Frank Long, who had duty that night, would
send me out the back door of the hut and point me in
some direction and tell me to hide some more. Frank,
did I ever say thanks? Well, anyway I came down
finally and was told of what i

had
done and of course had to see the co. chief. He wanted
to send me to the brig but ut1 Rudd (I think that was
his name) put in a good for me and I just

had
to do some extra duty for awhile. I have a hard time
remembering peoples names (I wonder why). I do
remember Buzz, and Frank, and Rico(R.I.P.), Twitch
Morrison, Steve Foley, Steve Kelly, Tom Reedy, Wah
Wah, thats the only name I remember about him,Russ
Young. As I sit here thinking some names are coming
back, Chris Murphy, Eddie Oates. Well anyway, the time
we spent on DG was a pretty wierd time and I like
looking back at it. My daughter is sick of all of my
Navy stories. Drop me a line, I'd like that.FTN-40

October-November
1980
(TDY)

NAME
= Michael J Monz Jr " Mighty Mike"

E-MAIL
= mgtymike33@hotmail.com

NATIONALITY
= USA

SERVICE
= USAF

UNIT
= MAC OL

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SSGT /E5 during my time on the BIOT

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Professional Adventurer Looking
For The Ultimate Get Away

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = I am a Born Liar, and Want To Tell
About All The Sex I Had on Dodge

MY
WARSTORY = Assigned to the 619MASS HICKAM AFB HI, was
hand selected by the 834th Airlift Division to enroute
at Clark for inbriefing and ACM Status on a C-5 for
the 8 hour flight to Deigo Garcia ( BIOT) to establish
the MAC Operationing Location.

What
a task considering we had to deal with the squids, who
were nortorious for tearing up things and calling the
ramps of everything a "deck". Came upon an old 40K
loader that missed the upgrade to deisel. The navy
filled the tank of this gas vehicle with the stuff,
when it did run, it blew the most perfect smoke ring.
I shipped it back to clark.

We
MAC troops had it fairly well considering during this
time the joke was " a women behind every tree" due to
the lack of. in fact female head count was
0. Still we had a couple of trailers colocated to
the beach on the bay side. a couple of the navy cooks
would hang out there and assist with the beer

drinking.
Beer Drinking... crew dogs took my order, and the next
Charlie 5( C-5A )arrival(next day) had my request
filled. 13 cases of the good ol SAN MIGUEL. Next day
at lauch I sent 12 of them cases back for refill.

Long
days and some hard work to get things on track and
running. But the mission was accomplished, and the
"Deigo Garcia Resort" T shirt made for some enlighting
talk with females looking for the ultimate
escape...hehehe

Nov
1980 Mar 1981

NAME
= Tom Persing

MY
QUEST = don't know still lost in the haze

VT
of a SWALLOW = Just before the cat swallows it

E-MAIL
= boilermaker1959@yahoo.com

NATIONALITY
= USA

SERVICE
= Navy

UNIT
= USS Jason 11A

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
HT2 I Quit

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = This is a No-Shit Drinking Story

MY
WARSTORY = Was there in 80 81 I voluteered to work on
the ammo ship ( Merchant Marine} They didn't care for
welding and cutting hot work. I managed to get done
what they wanted without striking an arc. The Master
fed me beer and good chow. I was late on the 2200
Liberty the Master kept me late at least he vouched
for me. I nevwr drank a beer or anything else on the
island.

1980-1981

NAME
= Mike "DOGFACE" McKinnon

MY
QUEST = The story

VT
of a SWALLOW = Good?

E-MAIL
= www.mikedfmck@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= U.S.A

SERVICE
= U.S.N

UNIT
= "PIPE RAT"

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SW-2

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Please Select a Title For Your Story,
or Select 'Other'

MY
WARSTORY = It wasn't Hordork and Bland that got into a
fight over a burger, it was Mark Givens and me
"DOGFACE" that got into it. And if I remember, I was
so drunk that Givens kicked my ass. But one time that
sticks out is when all the "PIPERATS" checked out a
duece and a half and went to the other side of the
island. We played frisbee football and I fucked up my
foot. Bland had to drive back and the asshole hit a
tree. Then I had to go before the ROCK and lost my
drivers license. Hell, I didn't give a shit. I still
keep in touch with Buzz, Latting, Thompson, Mitchell.
Chandler, and a few others. If anybody can get in
touch with Rick Baptista tell him thanks alot for
breaking my back. I get a nice check from Uncle Sam.
And tell that asshole to e-mail me. As for Mat Bland I
think he is still in Chino. Later all my "SEABEE
BRO'S"

aDDENDUM: On
the
war stories you have it wrong. At the begining you
state that I was a BOOT that cought up with 40. You
are completely wrong. I was in 40 from 1978-1981. I
was also the crew leader of the "PIPERATS" in 80 and
81. Please get it straight.

1980

NAME
= amanda

E-MAIL
= amndypanda74@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= i am an american and i love boys

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Please Select The Category That
Best Discribes Your Interest in Diego Garcia

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = There I Was, Passed Out in My Room

MY
WARSTORY = ok one day i was asleep in my room and
then came my boyfriend and said that the phone was 4
me and

If
any of you guys are reading this, who was that lifer
fuckstick SW-1 we got about halfway through the
deployment. He was all hung up on proper uniforms of
the day. Ours was shorts, mangled shirts and
unstarched hats, it was a little on the hot side if
memory serves. He tried his damndest to get us to
tighten up. Never happened.

How
about the automated tig welder? I remeber me and rocky
had some officer wantingto watch it one day. So we
fired up on a 24", or 36" pipe weld. This was inside a
tarped hut, about 130 degrees inside this fuckin
thing, and we told the "o" that once we started the
weld we couldnt stop till it was done. Which was
bullshit. Poor cocksucker nearly passed out from the
heat. Fuckin hilarious, for us anyhow.He couldnt wait
to get outta there.

I
remember mail call, with the "special packages".
Before the brits wised up. Whoever got the "box" was
damn near mobbed as soon as he got back to the hooch.
If ya know what I mean.

The
great steak heist and cookout. (nuff said)

Bob
Rodgers and the band jamming.

Boxing
matches,
we had a guy, Nick somebody, who was pretty damn good.

One
special delivery of blotter acid, 30 hits I think,
wow.

The
softball team.

Riding
in that fucking cattle wagon everyday out to the pier.

Eating
off that lousy roach coach, since we were out in
fucking timbucktoo we had to stay out there for chow.
Last ones to eat, fuck.

Mike
Mckinnon, myself and a couple others saying "fuck it"
and driving to the chow hall, when we got there the
"cook" told us he turned the grill off already. Let's
just say that he eneded up turning it back on.

Food
poisoned with some turkey shit, and the whole
battalion running to the outside shitters in the
middle of the night.

Racial
tensions
ran high for awhile, dont remember why.

Hoarding
booze in our lockers.

Mike
Hodorff and Matt Bland had one of the longest fights I
ever witnessed in our hooch. It started over the last
cheeseburger. These two guys beat the fucking snot out
of each other in the hooch for like 30 minutes, with
breaks in the middle. All the other roomies, 4 of us I
think, just watched. Then they shake hands when its
over. Un-fuckin believable.

takin
a 5ton truck to the lagoon to play football, and
wrecking the fucker into a palm tree.Knocked a hole in
the radiator. Im sure we had a couple beers that day.

Checkin
out the SR-71 at the hanger, watching it takeoff.

That
"milk"???
served warm. what was that shit called?

Damn
man, I could go on all day with this stuff.

I
gotta say, looking back, what a wild fucking time it
was. You didnt realize it at the time, but it's a
pretty good memory.

By
the way,

F.T.N..

And,
Buzz,(Joe Sawyer) yes I do remember the day you were
talking about.

MY
WARSTORY = The Jason arrived at Diego Garcia
(B.I.O.T.) on Dec 11, 1980 at 08:48 and remained there
until after the Jan 20 release of the American
hostages held in Iran. We departed for home on Feb 18.
1981. We arrived with a crew of aproximately 800 men
and 45 women. YES WOMEN. Another 45 or so women came
aboard while the Jason was there. This made us very
popular with the natives.

Very
shortly after we arrived, the EM Club ran out of beer.
We had a ships party ashore, with free beer, and we
again were very poplar with the natives. Several
"crashed" the party with our welcome.

New
Years Day 1981, IC-3 Danny Sotelo, myself and another
sailor (can't remember who it was at this time) went
snorkling in the harbor looking for oysters. Danny was
an experienced diver and we had found a HUGE oyster
shell on the beach. We figured if the oysters were
that large, there was a possibility of huge pearls to
be found. The harbor was very shallow so we snorkled a
long way out but was still in water about 6 foot deep
when we found an oyster. The other sailor was digging
one out with stick we had brought with us for the
purpose while I watched with my snorkle mask in the
water. I noticed a large shadow pass by, to my side
and back, and assumed that it was Danny who we had not
seen for awhile. We assumed Danny had gone on to
deeper water. I turned to look to see Danny but
instead what had passed was a large shark. The other
guy pulled up the oyster he was digging out and asked
if I had caused the shadow, and I said no. Realizing
what it had been he asked where Danny was. We assumed
that Danny had been attacked and that is why we had
not seen him in some time. We swam the long distance
back to shore all the time worring about Danny. Only
when we got back to the beach did we find out what
happened to Danny. In the beach we found a note in the
sand, saying "Gone to the Club, Danny". We made a bee
line to the E-Club to read Danny the riot act for
putting us through the anguish.

More
one of these days ...

1979-1980
&1981

NAME
= Kenneth P. Greco

MY
QUEST = I would really love to go back to D.G. and
work in some capacity.

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SW3 (then), I left active duty in July 81 just after
we got back from Diego Garcia (our deployment-NMCB
4).In Jan.84 I became a police

officer
and remained one until June 96 when I retired. I spent
several years in the Reserves after active duty, and
have been out of the Reserves since 91.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = This is a No-Shit Fishing Story

MY
WARSTORY = One time I was fishing in the lagoon on one
of those 15 ft. Boston Whaler boats that you
could rent out for free at the marina.This had to be
early 1980 or late 79.I was fishing with another
steelworker- enny Horn. Usually When you fish in
the lagoon you would only wait a couple to a few
minutes before you hooked a red snapper, grouper, or
one of God's most beautiful fish on God's most
beautiful fishing location!So, me and Kenny were out
on the lagoon for about an hour and didn't get any
bites.So, I reached my hands into the good old Indian
Ocean lagoon to wash them off, leaving my fishing rod
alone in the boat, and yep! you guessed it!,I then got
a bite and my rod and reel went out of the boat and
into the beautiful blue and green waters of the
lagoon.I looked down at the lagoon in dismay and
anxiety, and Kenny Horn just said "it's gone Greco,
it's gone!".I was ticked off to say the least cause we
still had almost a whole day left out on the
lagoon.So, we stayed out there and Kenny continued to
fish, since I no longer had a rod and reel.A little
while passed, and we used a little Seabees "Can Do
Spirit and ingenuity". We had snorkeling gear with us,
so we went over to the other side of D.G. into
shallower water, and I put on the snorkel gear,got out
of the boat and used Kenny's line from his rod and
reel with the bait on it(raw chicken from the chow
hall),and went snorkeling for fish in that mode!I saw
one of those puffer fish with the spike looking things
sticking out from it's body amidst some coral,dropped
the bait and line in front of it,it bit and we had a
catch.Then Kenny reeled it in and we so
continued.There's alot of other great memories fron
D.G. that are to numerous to mention(like when me and
the same Kenny Horn were snorkeling on the ocean side
of D.G. and a 12 ft. Mako shark was near us).Diego
Garcia-"truly the best duty location in the Navy",
even though you didn't think that when you were sent
there back in 79,80,& 81.I like to say hello to
all those guys I was stationed with back then like
Kenny Horn from the story,Jim Tavenner,Dave
Edwards,SW1 Garland Evans,SWSC Reagan,Mark
Rickaway,John Beausejour a.k.a. "animal,SW2
Holland,BUC Hass,John Stallings,Perry(don't remenber
last name),and a lot of others that I was there with
in Public Works(NAVSUPPFAC),and to all of the guys I
was ther again with in 81 with NMCB 4,s
Det.(J.Miracola,N.Hederman,C.Straney,M.

Formosa,R.Duncan,T.Curran,&
others)."Thanks
for the memories"! I am currently looking for work and
I am sick of waisting my time and efforts with alot of
the so called "perfect employers looking for the
perfect candidates for employees".I'm not perfect and
God knows they ain't either !I can work and am willing
to do so.Please E-mail me at kgreco05@yahoo.com.

Thanks
for your time in reading this warstory and request for
employment-Kenny Greco.

1980

NAME
= Then UT-3 Terry Willey {Alias Wiley Cyote]

MY
QUEST = Find Freinds from the old days on Deigo

E-MAIL
= streetshakngrafix@yahoo.com

NATIONALITY
= American

SERVICE
= Navy Seabees

UNIT
= nmcb fuckin 40

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
UT-3 Now medically retired after 12 Years

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I remember passing time away drinking and
smoking shit, Fucking withe the chickens and just
plain ass gettin trashed all the time!!!!

I
remember Building the Biggest Dam Potatoe Gun That
Fired a Coconut at least 100 feet to the zeros huts
and hiding the fucker under the trailer and laughing
our asses off! Mike Boles, Mike Watson, Jerry Tewes,
SOW, Larry Jonesy, and to my close friend Roy davis
whom I soent a numerous amount of nights gettin
toasted with! If anyone of you are out there from
bravo company please contact me! Ain't none of us
gettin younger

1980
some time arounf Feb or March I think

NAME
= Bill Verstelle

E-MAIL
= verst@pacbell.net

NATIONALITY
= American

SERVICE
= USAF

UNIT
= TDY from Beale in support of SR-71

RANK/RATE/JOB
=

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = I'd Like to Share Precious Memories of
Drinking/Fishing/Snorkeling/Sailing on Diego Garcia

MY
WARSTORY = I was told that I was going TDY to a Island
in the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia and it was a
paradise. My orders said confindencal location and I
was told it was a secret mission. Well when we landed
in Okanawa We read in the Stars and Strips what our
mission was...so much for a secert.

We
were told that we would be eating real well, Steak for
every meal. Well after a flight that seemed to last
for ever We saw the Island on the radar scope and when
the Island came in sight I remember thinking how small
it was and could we really land a KC-135Q on such a
small island. Well the runway was just long enough and
we all stepped out to a Hot humid blast and I remember
it being hard to breath. When we left Beale it was
Winter.

We
were driven to some old wooden sea Huts on the bay
side and that was to be home for the next 30 to 40
days. The mattresses were piss stained and full of
sand. We cleaned it up as well as posiable and stowed
ours belongings.

We
had a young Lieutenant with us and all he talked
about doing when we land was eat a coconut, so he
finds a tile knife (we were not allowed to bring any
knifes with us) He grabs the first coconut he finds
laying on the ground and attacks it with the knife.
Well it takes him a while but he finally get down to
the nut and crackes it open and looks inside and it's
full of worms, he throws it down and doesn't look at
another coconut the rest of the trip. We had a guy
with us from Hawaii and he tells us to only eat the
geeen ones in the trees and not the brown ones on the
ground. The rest of us eat a lot of coconuts until we
got the running GI's.

The
next day I head to the Chow hall for some of thoes
steak and eggs I was told I would be eating. When we
got there we were told that a Navy ship had
a refrigerator malfunction and lost all its meat
so they took all of ours, all they had was some fish
rolled in stale potato chips and this warm milk in
cartons that doesn't need refrigeration and some stale
toast. I could not eat that crap so we went back to
the main area and found these Diego Burgers we called
them donkey burgers and even though they were not
Burger King it was better than the chow hall.

Well
now I can't sleep or eat well so the only other thing
to do was drink. The beer was cheep but not so good
the cans had rust on them most was warm and not to
many brands to choose from but hey when a bunch of GI
are stuck on a island they will drink any thing. We
were running our tankers back and forth to Okanawa so
we placed orders for food and lots of good beer even
Pizza. So life was getting better, we was doing a lot
better that the Seabee's who were stuck there for a
year or more and did not have the dilivery service
that we had. I felt sorry for them they worked so hard
and than have to be away from their families for so
long and not a women in sight. They the Seabees
treated us ok we drank a lot with them shared our beer
and did have a few fights but most of us were so drunk
we didn't even remember a fight the next day.

I
remember swimming in the bay with Snorlels we check
out and I remember how beutiful the coral and fish
were. We also check out row boats and went fishing you
could see the fish and catching them was a piece of
cake, we had some great cookouts. Our young Lieutenant
got to go fishing with the Navy Capt and our Colonel
in a boat with a outboard motor out in the ocean, well
the LT hooks into a big grooper and fights it for a
long time than all of a sudden his pole bend all the
way over than goes slack. Well he pulls in a 10lb
grooper head with no body, than a Hammer head shark
tries to get into the boat to get what is left of the
grooper. Well this scars the shit out of the LT and
the Capt and Colonel get a good laugh.

The
other things I remember was a 5 lane boweling lane and
out door movie theater and no women on the island. I
was in the enlisted club one night and the Dutch navy
shows up with their nickers and white hats with a
white fluffy ball on top. They had more American money
than we had and clean out the ship store, but they did
buy us a lot of drinks. I also remember a lot of
chickens and those coconut crabs but didn't see
any donkeys. We were told that these were British
subjects and we were not allowed to mess with them.

When
we launched our tankers one day some guys in a jeep
drove behind them with rocks and bits of coral flying
everywere and they got a little messed up. Well the
next day when we were ready to launch I was told to go
out to the road and stop any one from driving behind
the planes. Well I was waiting for engine start and
look into the bay were there was a school of baby fish
in a ball so I was throwing small rocks into the
middle of them just to watch them scatter and go back
into there ball again. Well there was this Brit
walking down the road and he sees me throwing these
small rocks at the fish so he run over to me and chews
me out for throwing rocks at the little fish, he says
the fish don't have a chance and I will kill all of
them if I don't stop. Man what a werdo, I think the
chap had gone off his rocker, spent to much time on
this island and need to go home and get laied. I later
spent a couple of months in England and found out that
this is normal thinking for the Brit's Know wonder we
kicked them out.

When
I was there I hated it and could wait until I got home
to a normal life but now many years later I have a
fond place in my heart for this island. It was a weard
feeling while there kind of like being in a different
planet but it was an experance that I will always
remember. I regret that I didn't take any pictures I
just wasn't into picture taking than, I did have a 110
camera but I lost the film before I ever developed it.
I would like to go back now and see how things have
changed. I also remember how bright the stars were and
I could see the sothern cross...what I could have seen
with a telescope.

Our
mission was to bring fuel (JP8) in for our SR-71 which
would later in the year make a visit to the island
another team before us took down one of out SR-71
hangers a Beale and installed it on the island...I
wonder if it is still there??

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
BUCN, BU3, BU2. Diego, Diego, Sigonella,
Adak. Lets see after my alchoholic binge and
failure at school, just had to resort back to what the
navy taught me, Ya still pouring concrete.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = There I Was, Passed Out on The Beach

MY
WARSTORY = Got to admit, Diego has special
place in me. First time there I just turned 18,
Tropical Paridise. The most enjoyable activity would
be snorkeling. All the colors and tropical fish, manta
rays, giant sea turtles, then the mory eal at low tide
on the reef, couldn't see him but he sure would tear
up the stick we stuck in his hole. Now what would we
have done if he decided to come out and do that to our
legs? Always wanted to see a shark out in the water.
Those damn crabs. I would crash out 0n the beach now
and then or maybe it was pass out. One time the waves
coming in woke me up, glad it was dark sure hate to
see what else was eyeing me. Two guys down the first
deployment. Did they ever find Mcbride? Then the Eo
found on the beach getting eaten by the crabs, This
happend within two Months of going home and I decided
to take it easy in the water, cause i wanted to go
home! First time was good , drunk and crazy.

Second
time The Det , back to back was with the Groggers in
Tyroliaville. I got stuck in that crowd late in
homeport, but I think they accepted me. Was going to
Guam then 2 weeks before deployment "THEY" decided to
have me go back to Diego. For a week I just said to
hell with you, then had to put in a "CHIT" to fight
it, Ya they just laughed at me, The Co of MCB 5 said
they needed me, I new what was going on, and of course
the Det CO was turning others down. So off i went this
time was fun riding back wards in a c-141 with about 3
windows half way around the world. Well I sure
proceeded to get drunk when I got there, wouldn't you
know it I was first for watch, so I went to react hut
to sleep it off, Then had to do on island counseling,
for awhile then Got in some more trouble and spent the
last 2 months of deployment sober. Back to states and
drunk again till I was 27, been sober since I'm 44
now. The opportunities I missed from drinking.

The
Iran crises started just as we left the first time, 6
months later we went back, All hell was breaking loose
on Diego, has been ever since. I liked it better when
it was just a Seabee island 2 flights in a week if
your lucky, Peaceful it was. The second time there 2
flights in a day, ships subs marines. I envy the first
Seabees in the early 70's.

Hell
of a lot of crazy shit happened there, mojo, toga
parties, fighting, just too much to talk about. Second
time there I about just didn't want to leave, guess
you can call it "institutionlized". I found peace
there with all the fight I had in me when i got there
the second time, Good friend of mine Don Miller BU mcb
40 came over two months into my second time and he got
me out of my fighting shit. I lost contact with him
when I got out, I was stationed with him up in Adak.
Don Dudek an Electrician I befriended there, I found
him several years ago and with these damn Pc we keep
in good contact

Miles
Simmenou?
I beleive it was Ted Gourd Cal surfer used to say,
Cowabunga or was it knarley? I asked him one day what
it meant, Hell he didn't know, just a surfer term for
cool waves i beleive. We lost 2 guys each time there.

I
kind of grew up there, spent 16 months in my late
teens. Hell 5 years active duty I spent close to 3
years in isolation. I don't regret any of the navy
time, just wish I had more life under my belt and
wasn't a drunkard.

1980

NAME
= Mary Ellen Shannon Nigh

MY
QUEST = to find out if kittens are aerodynamic

VT
of a SWALLOW = african or european?

E-MAIL
= sionan37@hotmail.com

NATIONALITY
= American

SERVICE
= USN

UNIT
= USS LY Spear

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
ICFN

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Professional Adventurer Looking
For The Ultimate Get Away

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I arrived at DG after becoming the first
enlisted female shellback since WWII and possibly
ever, since at that time nurses were
occifers! Our ship was the one relieving the USS
Ajax, which had a couple of female occifers. We
had over 100 enlisted females onboard the Spear so our
CO called us together to have "a little talk" about
the Navy's policy on male-female
relationships. No fraternization! Period! I
was on the first liberty launch ashore and we were met
by a bunch of horny CB's waving MUTIPLE
PAYCHECKS! I explained that I wasn't interested
in ending up in the brig, and the guys decided that
just talking to a female and looking at something that
didn't look like a deck ape was pretty good. I
got interested in a sweet but slightly older British
Officer (there were two on the island and he was the
younger of the two). Then one day onboard the
Spear they announced as how anyone interested, could
take a tour of a real live nuclear submarine. Now
my job didn't involve going onto the sub, but our shop
supplied power to the subs, so I was
interested. I climbed down the hatch and one of
the guys was escorting me around the Baton Rouge,
explaining what I was seeing. We stepped up onto
the control room deck and we passed close to the
navigators station, where there was this cute
guy. I made some remark to him and he said
hello. I explored the control room a bit and then
left. A couple of days later I was helping to
organize bingo night (we didn't have a lot of
entertainment) on the mess decks, when crossing the
gangway, here comes that cute guy from the BR. I
asked if he wanted to join me and away we
went. Several picnics on the DG beach, swimming
in the DG swimming pool, some illegal canoodling on
the Spear's bow later, we got engaged on top of the
BR. On December 27, 2004 (just a few days ago) we
celebrated our 24th anniversary! We have 2 sons
and many fond memories of DG. Both of us hope
that one day we can return to the scene of the
crime! P.S. About that illegal canoodling, we
were once run off from our favorite spot by a male
chief and a female occifer!

1980

NAME
= James H. Martin

MY
QUEST = to fly to DG someday to help the USAF erect
the portable B-2 hangar

VT
of a SWALLOW = 1 f.p.s., from mouth to stomach

E-MAIL
= jmartin@logis-tech.com

NATIONALITY
= US

SERVICE
= USN

UNIT
= VA-52 off the USS Kitty Hawk, transient to Clark AFB
PI

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
LT in 1980, retired as CDR in 1997.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = The USS Kitty Hawk, CV63, had swung by in
December 1979 to pick up the the H-53 helicopters for
the Iranian hostage rescue operation. On the way to DG
[alone, we ditched the remainder of the battle group
in the Malaca Straits during a night high-speed
underway replenishment with the White Plains] we
launched an EA6B to DG, the 4-man crew included the
squadron CO going in to liaison for the H-53 pickup.
The EA6B disappeared, fate

unknown,
presumed
crashed at sea. The same month, another EA6B crashed
in the med, killing my best friend's Whidbey Island
roommate. So during our 10th month of deployment we
picked up the H-53s and headed for Iran, the loading
was a fly-aboard at 2am--no piers for carriers existed
then and the whole operation was too damn secret.

During
early January operations my CO and roommate went in
the water in their A-6 off the catapult. We ran over
Bruce Miller the BN. Our skipper CDR Butch Williams
was alive as he passed down the port side, but his
chute pulled him under and he drowned despite the
heroic effort of the rescue swimmer who got Butch's
body back to the surface. My friend Clint Provenza
escorted his body back in an S-3 that refueled through
DG on the way to the PI.

After
a month and a half of sneaking through the straits of
Hormuz in the dark and spying on Iran, we were
relieved by the USS Coral Sea, we thankfully passed
the H-53s to her in February [they later made a mess
of the rescue] and we high-tailed it East. I had a
firm PRD and commitment so within COD

range
the CO launched me to DG. A fellow squadron mate was
with me and we were manifested 10 days later out of
DG, the wait backlog was that long [and mail used to
take 30-45 days back then]. Getting drunk in an
open-air hooch [the only kind at the time] that night
we met a C-5 maintenance crew on a layover. Their
landing gear was broke and could not be repaired on
DG. The C-5 was going to take off at dawn, before all
the manifested passengers would show up at 8am
as-ordered to "wait all day long, just in case". My
buddy and I slinked onto the C-5 pre-dawn as
'maintenance crew', thankfully I was an Aviation
Maintenance Officer, albeit Navy! We had four box
lunches each to help us survive the 17 hours flight to
Clark AFB PI, yep, 17 hours in restricted-speed
flight, with the landing gear PINNED DOWN all the way.
Noisey, too.

That
was my one night on DG, in a giant rainstorm, not
sober for a minute.

My
buddy and I holed up in a Manila hotel for a week and
waited for our commercial flight home to Whidby
island, WA. Sure was better in Manila in 1980 than it
was in DG. Things have really changed.

1980-ISH

"Mike
Buchinno"
<mbucchino@charter.net>

Here's
my info anyway!

>USA
(the best country in the world!)

>USAF

>TDY
(AF temporary duty) Operation Busy Lobster

>E-2
A1C to E-4 Sgt active AF crew chief on the KC-135A's
& Q's back then, E-5 SSgt active AF jet mech on
the F-15A's & E's in the late

80's,
E-6 TSgt Arizona Air National Guard on KC-135E's in
the 90's, E-6 TSgt New Hampshire Air National
Guard(retired)on the KC-135R's

now.....

>Stroll
Down
Memory Lane.....

>Actually
I Have A Real Story To Tell.......

>Well,
back in those days there was a regular TDY exercise
named "Busy Lobster Tanker Task Force" to Diego from
Kadena AB, Okinawa (where I was serving an accompanied
long tour at the time). I was lucky enough to get
two different 9 day long TDY's to Diego for these
excellent, frequent exercises. We brought a few
tanker's and some F-15A's and IIRC, an E-3 AWAC's from
Kadena, plus a C-5 from Travis. I have many pictures
of the place, and even more fond
memories. Staying in the elevated half plywood/
half screen 'hooches', the f***'in jarheads waking us
up every morning, the Brits in their khaki shorts and
their security shakedown/in-briefing, the coconut
palms, the pristine white sand beaches, the rusted
cannon 'guarding' the entrances to the north, the
donkey gate, the picnic at SeaBee park, goin' out
'crabbin' after dark, the warning not to "f*** with
the Queen's ass, the Queen's pussy or the Queen's
crabs" (donkeys/cats/coconut crabs). They told us
that the coconut crabs could crack open a whole
coconut with their claws, so it was best not to get
too close...The "Pentograph" fuel manifold systems on
the flightline were so limited in flow, that if you
put 2 aircraft refuels on at the same time, it took
twice as long to finish. The runway that was so
narrow that after a C-5 took off, it's outboard
engines hung out into the unpaved areas and blew so
much gravel (FOD!) onto the runway that no one else
could use it until a sweep truck cleaned up the big
mess. The barbeque of assorted fish from a deep
sea fishing excursion some of the guy's went on one
day, where we all got a taste of barracuda (it was
delicious!). The two poor guys that got shared
shitless while out snorkeling on the lagoon side, when
a large shark fin appeared between them and the shore.
The stories of Hector the 26 foot
hammerhead. Finding some awesome red and blue
coral and shells on the beach. Riding my 10-speed
racing bike around that I brought along on the
airplane (they stopped allowing bikes to be carried on
the planes shortly after that time). Getting
woken up in the middle of the night by the crash of a
coconut on the tin roof. Having to De-Ionize our
own water with a fire hose (sloooowww!)for the water
injection system on the tanker. The almost
complete lack of females on the island, the only ones
being a couple Filipino's that worked there. The
open air theater where we watched old movies at night.
Wow, what a lot of memories of that strange and
wonderful place! I'll post some pic's soon if
possible.......

Thanks,
Mike Bucchino, Sr.

1980-1981

Subject: You
never
know what you got till it's gone!!!

Date: Tue,
28
Dec 2004 18:21:13 -0600

From: "Scott
Brown"
<josephscott13@msn.com>

What
happen to the rock ? Tidal waves had to have hit it. I
wish I could have been there!!!

My
name is T. Max Devlin, a moniker I sort of picked up
on the "Footprint of Freedom" itself. (My real
name is Tim, Max is a nickname I picked up in the

service,
and DG is where it finally stuck for good; now even my
mom calls me 'Max'.) I was senior PO of
workcenter 610, VP-4 deployment, USN, in nineteen
eighty something. Wasn't 'till almost twenty
years later I realized it was the greatest time of my
life, but even then I knew it was great. Sunrise
over the Indian Ocean is the kind of thing I wish I
could still experience every day, even though I
wouldn't have seen it even once if I hadn't been
ordered to be at work at 0530. ;-)

I
hope someone is still there at the PPDRDG. It is
nice to know I wasn't alone in appreciating that
god-forsaken nightmare of a paradise. But to be
honest, I only found you because I heard something
that really creeped me out about what the US is doing
in the BIOT these days. "Camp Justice", is that

what
they call it? Sure as hell not the way those who
almost-secretly love it would want Diego Garcia to be
introduced to the wider world, eh?

Thanks
for your time. Hope it helps.

hmmmm....
Well Max, actually "Camp Justice" is just the USAF
tent city where another generation of young Americans
are sweltering in the tropic sun. If you are
referring to the rumored prison, well, I'm afraid I
don't know anything about that, but I'll ask you this
in exchange: Have you forgotten?

79
and 80

DENNIS
MULLOY, NMCB-5
1979 and DET Diego 1980

<dennis.mulloy@navy.mil>

Hi,
I would like to contact some of my old buddies from
NMCB-5 Det Diego Garcia. In 3 years I did two tours of
duty there. 4 months

with
the main body in 79 and a full 8 month deployment in
80-81.

Looking
for some of the old 'Groggers'. Shackelford, Jensen,
Gourd, Brewer and anyone else who spent that special
time in our

young
lives.

We
were on the fire station block crew, and worked also
at the airfield laying the tarmac..

Thanks!

80-81

NAME
= Gordy "gertin" Jenkins

MY
QUEST = to find the grail (really to maybe hear from
some of the great guys I was lucky to know)

VT
of a SWALLOW = african or american

E-MAIL
= s.jenkins1@cox.net

NATIONALITY
= hard headed welch kraut

SERVICE
= US NMCB 40

UNIT
= H Co.

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SKSN-SK3

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = Saw Joe "buzz" sawyers story and some the
memories came out of the alcohol fog. I remember
jammin with Bob R and Jim Z and Vinnie and Keith
(fleet sailor)on the beach (picture in the at ease
page in the beginning of the cruise book, in orange
shorts, my better side) and any body else for that
matter, every chance we got. Seeing Ed's, Steve's
& steve's, Mike's, Bob's, and lamby's names in
print like this blew me away. Who could forget, or is
it remember?, loading the icebox trailor with ice and
shitty headache beer, going to the other side to cook
the shitty burgers, chase chikens with blowguns, feed
the donkey beer after beer after beer, and of course,
drink and jam. Losing the outboard in the channel,
seeing the train line form behind the pig from the
tender with the guy crying he didnt want to be last,
lol.

Watching
good softball, seeing the blackbird take off, getting
to meet miss america and say hi to miss conecticut (my
home state), getting the giant clam shells from steve,
the purple from "cool" johnson, waiting in line for a
diego burger?, yeah did it, and of course a new years
eve that thankfully i didnt remember much of (and dont
really need too, i have the pictures, and a cracked
molar}.

But
most of all i remember great, great people. Frank T,
Mark G.,mike B., Frank L. and on and on. Being quite
mellow now (wife, two kids, no drinking, i know, i
shoulda quit when i was there) i find my self telling
my kids about the old crazy days in 40.

Ray
Johnson, was that you i saw at "witch meadows"
campground in ct, holloween, oh maybe6 or 7 years
ago?, if not you have a twin.

Bob,
if u see this bro, hope your still jammin, I am, with
a great bunch o guys.

Ed
N., if you see this, what a great trip home, Pat W.
thanks for the hospitality, thanks for the
ride and the memories

Hope
to hear from some of you soon

1980
-1981

NAME
= Frank Gonzalez

MY
QUEST = Locate friends from Grissom AFB

VT
of a SWALLOW = ?

E-MAIL
= Frankg807@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= PR

SERVICE
= USAF

UNIT
= 307 OMS

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
SR. AIRMEN

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = I'd Like to Share Precious Memories of
Drinking/Fishing/Snorkeling/Sailing on Diego Garcia

MY
WARSTORY = Anybody out there remember the time the
Subchaser piloted by an Admiral overshot DG. Well I
was the assistant Crew Chief that helped prepare our
tanker to take off and rescue them. At the time we
were laying out on the beach in the shark infested
lagoon enjoying our many free cases of bear.

We
were told that our efforts saved their lives. The
tanker arrived within three minutes of them ejecting
to save them. We were all given Commendation
medals for our efforts.

Does
anybody out there recall hoew the philipines would go
out to the lagoon during the low tide and circle
around the sharks to catch tem for dinner?

1980 '81
and'82

NAME
= wayde hovey

MY
QUEST = try to get back a few lost brain cells

VT
of a SWALLOW = all i know is it just ain't fast enough

E-MAIL
= nmcb40cc@yahoo.com

NATIONALITY
=

SERVICE
= Navy

UNIT
= nmcb40 charlie co

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
got out as a BU2 after Rota Spain dep

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = There I Was, Passed Out on The Beach

MY
WARSTORY = hell we were passed out all over the damn
place had some of the best times on that shitty
little island got some great pics of our crew
drunkards everyone of them i'll scan some and post
some if it's you in there give me a shout most of my
memories are lost in tomenting Tisue you know
what i mean i'll get those pics posted give a
hollor ror an old drunkard

1980
- 1981

NAME
= Bu3 Kelly Weaver

MY
QUEST = Rusty Tipps, Scott Jerome, John Schlichter

VT
of a SWALLOW = i dunno

E-MAIL
= weaverboxing@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= American

SERVICE
= USN SEABEES

UNIT
= BRAVO COMPANY

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
BU3

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Please Select The Category That
Best Discribes Your Interest in Diego Garcia

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = Had many fights, in & out of the
ring...Capt. D.C. Black saved me from CourtMarshall.
Whipping Marines, AirForce boys &
Guamanians..before one of our own was murdered there

May
'80 to September '80

NAME
= Jim Catron

MY
QUEST = wake up tomorrow...

VT
of a SWALLOW = Vt>=delta dawn.

E-MAIL
= jcatron@email.wcu.edu

NATIONALITY
= Scot-Irish/Moravian

SERVICE
= kill'em from30,000' USAF (ZOOMY!)

UNIT
= KC135
tanker avionic support

RANK/RATE/JOB
= staff
sgt then, PFCivilian since '84.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I left Seymour Johnson AFB in eastern
North Carolina in early May of '80 to go to a "FOL".
We had tankers going to Diego to support whatever shit
was going down in Iran. Leaving PI we escorted two
F15s on the way to Kadena.About halfway across the
fighters spied the USS Constellation being shadowed by
a Soviet trawler."Watch this!" they said and proceeded
to peel off and do a low level fly-over the trawler.
Our young A/C told everyone to hang on and took our
KC135(boeing 707) into a wing over down to 100'! Our
boom operator off-loaded a thousand pounds of JP4 on
the Russians!

When
we landed on a Saturday,the Chief Brit came out to do
the customs inspection on the planes-he was the only
one around. As we were sitting on the parking ramp by
our planes, he told us what wasn't allowed on the BIOT
island.."blowguns, drugs,Easy Rider motorcycle
magazines,firearms, etc...But you chaps don't have any
of those things,do you?" We told him "no",he
turned and left and the adventure was on! One a/c
crewchief had been to 'Nam and took me on his plane to
show me how he travelled to an unknown situation.
Under two big padlocks on the container reserved for
tiedown chains and such, was an arsenal of guns
and ammunition, all private stash of this
well-prepared airman. "Sure glad he didn't ask to see
this box"...

Good
to arrive on the weekend-A picnic was scheduled and
someone was needed to get up early and keep the 'Bees
from commandeering the whole picnic grounds.Gave me
and my bud a chance to try out the Kief that traveled
so far. WoW!! A "Bee cop came by-see what
we're up to...gave him the dozen or so half-empty
whiskey bottles that were left by the previous
partyers- That put us on the good side from the
get-go! Plus, we were AF and had two planes arriving
EVERY Saturday from Guam or Kadena-"What'cha need? We
can get it for you! Had two spools of parachute cord
arrive (thru channels-hehe)from the states via
Mac..Thanks, guys!

Our
AF group had to correct the image our former people
left,that is one of "NO horse trading!" Our new OPs
officer set aside a slush fund to aquire whatever we
needed. "Don't use it for steaks or beer",he said. No
problem! A case of beer was worth a case of steaks
anyday! And we always had beer coming every
weekend! Had a Navy one-star arrive with a broken
autopilot on his "personal"AF tanker-you
know,spit-shined engine cowlings,Lt Col.s' for
pilot/copilot..His aircrew got pissed because another
zoomy and I boarded the plane (after the 'dignitaries'
were greeted)in standard uniform of the day..cutoff
fatigues, no t-shirt,fatigue shirt unbuttoned-It WAS
night-time..

"Who
the hell are you?" AF. "WHOSE AF?" Same one as you,
sir... I don't have to fix your autopilot- you
can fly manually all the way to wherever you're
going..spare parts are real critical here.I don't
care. "Just fix it! The following week we were
notified that a PACAF inspection detachment was coming
for a "suprise" visit on Saturday.The 30 year, Berlin
Airlift veteran (who made E9 while in Diego!)running
our outfit told everybody AF to shave,get a
haircut,put on long pants,T-shirt, polished
boots,etc..-look STRAC! And we did! The high level
Kadena crew couldn't find any signs that discipline on
Diego "had gone to Hell..".They departed on Sunday,
and everyone went back to the uniform of the
day-cutoffs,etc.. True, no females,initially,but
one 'Bee detachment(?)was rotating out and the new one
arrived to find rumor of FOUR naval females that
stayed shipboard,being occifers..Episodes of near
toxic levels of alcohol consumption resulted..

There
was even an attempt to set fire to one of the JP4
shitters (unsuccessful).

Got
to fly with a helicopter crew that was doing touch and
go's. Thanks! to the very friendly guys that gave a
zoomy the nickle tour of the place!

An
SR71 'Blackbird' spyplane came in to show off!
That mach3+ plane also got two of the coveted "Busy
Lobster"logos painted on the twin vertical
stabilizers. In Chevrolet Orange!

The
most hilarious event was getting a speeding ticket
(and not having a bus license-there were 27 guys in
and on the square blue AF step-van going to chow).A
Brit officer chewed me out and made me give him my DoD
license!(Had 3 more in my wallet)

Housing
for us was the newly built SEasia style of plywood
hootches, tinroofs,side screens for windows all the
'way round with wooden shutters for the storms! Our
hooch was decorated with a stole sign from a
Phillipine bar- The Bat Cave-and soon had a
'frig-again from our navy brethren-Thanks!

If
I recall correctly,the holds on the ship bringing in
supplies- BEER!-leaked and the salt water trashed
the aluminum cans resulting in the infamous "shortage"
of '80! Us zoomies instructed every AF arrival to buy
all the beer he could afford and bring it with
them!When the big side cargo door opened on the
tanker,there was always a line to buy Coors at $10 a
case! Big markup over class 6 stores! But it was
COLD, refrigerated by travelling at 30,000'. One
young 19 year old airman got the name of "Crash"
Craddock because he rolled a power cart on the flight
line! A submarine crew came in.Driving on the
flightline we saw a REALLY pale,sickly-colored young
fellow walking about in new jeans and shirt fresh from
the BX.He said they had just spent the last 3? 6?
months underwater and was stretching his legs.. They
were a hard drinking lot,always yelling
DIVE-DIVE-DIVE! at their table!

Then
the Phillipino's came to do contract KP work in the
mess halls. All you could eat lobster soon became
half a tail... At dusk you could see little brown
people running all over carrying things they had
"found" around on base-plywood, toilets,you name it,if
it wasn't too heavy, enough of them would improve
their hootches with everyone's stuff.After all they
were there for a year!

(This
may turn into a book!)

Enough
for now-jcatron@email.wcu.edu 68th Bomb Wing SAC

September
11, 1980 - April 15 ,1981

NAME
= Daryl Hopkins

MY
QUEST = life long physical fitness

VT
of a SWALLOW = .69

E-MAIL
= not now maybe later

NATIONALITY
= African American

SERVICE
= Navy

UNIT
= NMCB Fightin Fuckin Forty

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
E-1 then now Retired E-5 T.E.R.A program. 1996
15yrs. 4mo. 21days. and to many hours to count.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Other

MY
WARSTORY = Lots of P.I. purple hazed beer fogged
memories all good. but what sticks out most in my mind
is the Forty Thrashers softball team. Staring my self
D.hop, Tom Gillespie, Joe Proctor, Mike Hawkridge and
so many others. I remember or record after the season
was something like 56-9 we had a team ritual of
rocking a chicken after every game but after the first
20 or 30 games it was getting kind of crazy.I remember
Olie olson was the C.O. of 62 I had a few friends from
the Battalion as well as friends from NMCB 5's det.
How about the black out lots of smokin going on then.
pink floyd on the boom box. captains mast for the
beating of a 2nd class builder from my det Bu2 Ken
Klowsloski whooped his ass good! more than worth the
20 days restriction and extra duty.well until next
time FTN!

Feb.
& March 1980

NAME
= Allen C. Hatcher Sr.(TSGT.)

MY
QUEST = To find out who is the regular crew chief .

VT
of a SWALLOW = Is this for beer or hard hard stuff?

E-MAIL
= allenhatchersr@hotmail.com

NATIONALITY
= United States of America

SERVICE
= U.S.A.F.

UNIT
= CREW CHIEF on KC-135A Sratotanker (T/sgt)

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
S/SGT Paul Harmon Crew Chief KC-135A.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Professional Adventurer Looking
For The Ultimate Get Away

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = Well I guess I got the ultimate get away
when I went Pacific Tanker Task Force on a supposed 30
day TDY from McConnell A.F.B, Kansas. We, my flight
crew and two ass't, were sent to Anderson A.F.B.,Guam
for tanker support of the B-52Hs that were flying the
33 hour nonstop missions to Iran and back to show the
Iranians and the Soviets that we were still players in
this hostage situation.

Originally
we were supposed to go to South Korea for
the joint war games that were going on there,but
as luck would have it the tanker we launched to Diego
Garcia crapped out about about 2 hours out. Me and a
couple of other NCOs had gone to the NCO club to get
some chow and have a few drinks, mities. At about
23:00 the line chief tracked us down to give us the
bad news,"boys you're going to Diego Garcia ,so get
your shit together and get down to the flight line and
preflight your bird".

Lucklily
the only thing we had to do was service liquid oxygen
and we were ready to go. Our flight crew showed up at
around 05:30, they noticed that we were a little bit
under the weather, chuckle chuckle, I told our
Aircraft Commander that we had been sucking on pure
oxygen to revive us, he just laughed . Once we got
airborne and at altitude we just settled back for the
10hour plus filght to Diego Garcia.

After
flying for over 5000 miles I was Awakened by being
weightless in my fold down crew bunk, "holy shit what
the hell is happening", then all of a sudden gravity
kicked in and I was plopped back down in my bunk. I
jumped down out of my bunk and scrambled up to the
cockpit. As soon as I entered I saw that our boom
operator Bruce was flying the plane. Our two pilots
Jesse and Tom turned around grinning and said "hey we
didn't do it" and pointed to Bruce. He turned around
said " Oops, sorry about that,".

When
everything
calmed down I could see we were on final approach to
Diego Garcia. It's a good thing we had good navigation
aids or we would have missed it for sure. At least it
was bigger than WAke Island ,but not by much. As we
landed I exclaimed " We have the distinct honor of
being the first tanker from McConnell A.F.B, Kansas."

After
landing, refueling and putting our bird to bed, we
hopped a bus to where we were to be billeted. We were
the only ones on the bus except two sailors and the
driver. Due to my Boy Scout training I was prepared, I
had brought along a couple of cases or COORS beer
which I had imported from Derby, Kansas, this beer was
still ice cold from being at 30,000 ft plus lying
next to the cold aircraft skin. To shorten this I gave
each of the sailors an ice cold beer,I will never
forget the looks on their faces, halfway around the
world they get a taste of home,one of the guys
actually had tears in his eyes. To me this had
made the trip almost worth while.

We
settled in and started flying a couple of missions a
week. What would happen is that our tankers would go
up and hit the B-52Hs from Guam that were on their way
to Iran to buzz the Soviet navy then they would fly
back and we'd top them off for the long flight back to
Guam.

After
being there for almost 30 days things started to get
real interesting. One evening I noticed some
activity at the gymnasium so I ambled over the to see
what was going on,as soon as I walked in I saw that
the entire gym floor was covered with cotts and on
those cotts were combat dressed and armed Marines. "oh
shit something is coming down big time", so I got my
ass out of there.

The
next day my replacement tanker arrived, low and behold
it turned out to be another McConnell bird, Paul
Harmon's. When I recognized the plane I just
busted out laughing and couldn't marshal the bird. All
of a sudden the pilot put the brakes on and stopped
right there, then the cockpit filled with bodies and
the pilots window opened up. When they saw it was me
about 4 arms stuck out of the window giving me the The
Hawian Good Luck Sign, you know the finger. I regained
my military bearing and brought them in. I was like
old home week having one of our own with us even
thought we would be leaving in a few days.

I
warned the guys that Diego Garcia was a whole
different world. Later that evening Paul Harmon
and I went over to the enlisted club to have a few
beers. We were sitting there when two
juiced sailors were playing so full contact ping
pong decided to play through,the ping pong ball landed
on our table and one sailor decided to play the ball
where it laid. The sailor ran over hit the ball off
the middle of our table it was a nice chip shot. Then
the game was on. I told Paul to finish his beer and
that we had better scram, because all hell was going
to break loose. Sure enough just as soon as we walked
out the Master at Arms with his boys to break up the
fight. Paul commented "These guys are animals", I told
him that's what happens when you get guys who have
been cooped up on a ship for months and they finally
get a chance to blow off steam. As we were walking
back to the barracks we saw all sorts of passed out
sailors in the grass and leaned up against the palm
trees with a can of beer in there hands, ahh memories.

With
in a couple of days my crew and I rotated back to Guam
and them a couple of weeks later we got back home . It
was April 24/25, 1980. We got back to kansas around
03:30, my wife and 3 year old son were there to greet
me. The 30 day TDY turned out to be a 69 day TDY go
figure. At around noon our time Gail woke me up and
said honey you need to get in here and see this. The
TV news was going wild about the failed rescue attempt
of the hostages in Iran.

Later
on when Harmon got back he told me that they were
tasked to refuel the C-130s that flew into
Iran. And that it was real spooky cause they flew
just off the coast of Iran, but they had an escort of
F-14 tomcats to keep the Iranians off thier ass.

Well
so much for my small tale of high adventure in the far
off land of DIEGO GARCIA. T/SGT ALLEN C. HATCHER

1979,1980,1984,1985,1986

NAME
= Joseph P Stropole

MY
QUEST = Old Friends, and Enemies....

VT
of a SWALLOW = 60 MPH in a Windshield

E-MAIL
= jstropole@mail.com

NATIONALITY
= USA !

SERVICE
= Merchabt Marine

UNIT
= USNS Rigel, USNS Mercury, USNS Jupiter, USNS
Ponchatoula

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
3rd Asst, 2nd Asst

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Decided to Join A Monastery, But
Couldn't Find One Stateside

MY
WARSTORY = I met NMCB 40 as a new boot while they were
deployed to Diego in Decmeber of 1980. I then
returned to Diego on a detatchment from 1981 to
1982. After Diego, I deployed to Guam and then to
Rota Spain. I was then able to secure a TDY
assignment with the 31st NCR as a weapons (81mm)
instructor. I then re-upped and served my last
three years with CBU-409 in Long Beach, CA. I
made a lot of good friends while serving and regret
not keeping in touch with them. If you are one of
those individuals please forgive me and drop me a
line. Most people that I served with remember me
as "Chico." I was given this nickname by a good
friend (Mike Hodorff) because I was one of the few
hispanics in the batallion. When I first went to
Diego we worked on the barracks project for the fleet
sailors. When I returned in 1981 we worked on the
Officer's Club during the entire deployment. I
now live in my home town of El Paso
Texas. Recently my wife Sandra and I went on
vacation to San Francisco via Pt. Hueneme. I
tried to get on the base but was refused due to
tightened security probably from 9-11. This was
very disappointing to me because I really have alot of
fond memories of my Navy days. To all of my old
friends, Doug, Mike, Floyd, Bob or anyone else that I
served with, please drop me a line.

1980

NAME
= Dan Flak

MY
QUEST = To follow that star no matter how hopeless, no
matter how far.

VT
of a SWALLOW = Depends on the weight of the buckshot
in the cargo department.

E-MAIL
= dan.flak@danflak.com

NATIONALITY
= U S of A

SERVICE
= Air Force

UNIT
= Air Force Commander (only 3 AF people on the island
at the time)

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
Then - captain

Now
- Lieutenant Colonel (Retired)

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Decided to Join A Monastery, But
Couldn't Find One Stateside

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I spent a year at Diego one month (Aug
1980).

I
was sent there from my C-130 squadron at Yokota to
coordinate the airlift. Although only a captain
at the time, they put me in field grade quarters which
were far superior to the quarters given the aircrews.
We could never get it straight with the XO about not
inspecting the quarters during crew rest.

I
could tell which crews would be trouble: those coming
off the plane grumbling and complaining. Then there
were those crews that came off the plane already in
cut-offs, carrying the cooler and the fishing
equipment.

I
had a friend of mine who worked the command post at
Hickam. He had the Pacific, and I had the Indian.
Between us two captains, we controlled about 2/3 of
the free world's airspace.

It
took me about 15 minutes to figure out that although
the Admiral thought he ran the place, the real power
was with the Chief. The Chief had a thing about
stationary supplies that were only available in Japan
at the time. I quickly established a supply line and
with a willing import-export executive on the Japan
side (my wife). I could get anything I wanted on the
island.

In
1980, there wasn't much traffic in and out of Diego. A
busy day might have been 3 or 4 airplanes. Most days
it was just two. We worked all kinds of hours, but
there was a lot of time off. We did manage to get some
transportation and visit the plantation on the other
side of the island. We did bring a beer for Missy the
Mule.

I
spent most of my free time sleeping on the beach. When
the temperature is a constant 80 degrees with a sea
breeze, it's easy to nod off.

There
were several events that happened while I was there.
The first was the Miss America tour that came through.
They put the women up in an undisclosed location with
a marine guard on them. I don't know who was guarding
the marines. Miss Arizona seemed to be the favorite.
They "laid over" at Deigo and then went onto the Gulf
to entertain the sailors on the ships.

On
the way back one of the aircrews showed me the
autograph Miss Arizona made in his "black book." It
seems he showed her where the crew loft was and how to
get comfortable there. Her entry read, "Thank you for
letting me sleep." He said he hadn't figured out what
to tell his wife about that yet.

I
had a C-5 come in with an engine out. That was a lot
of fun. Where do you park it? And what do you do with
all those people? I convinced the aircraft commander
that due to extremely limited billeting to keep only
those crew he needed to taxi the airplane, and send
the rest back to Clark. We'd bring them back with the
parts. He kept 12 and sent 18 back. I got a great view
of the island from the tail. It was the tallest
structure on base.

Another
incident
that occurred was that some sailor got drunk, stole a
vehicle and had a 70 mph meeting with a tree. He was
in bad shape and the medics came to me asking how
quickly I could get him out. I had one partying
aircrew on base, and a C-141 due in. I asked the
aircraft commander of the crew on the ground how long
he thought, if they stopped drinking right now, that
they would be ready to fly. He told me he thought he
could sober them up in about 6 hours.

I
went to work flight planning (it had been a while
since I had done a flight plan for a C-141) and got
the engineer on my team prepped to do a pre-flight on
the incoming bird. It then occurred to me that it took
24 hours to get flight plans approved in those days.
The Chief told me not to worry about it. He apparently
had connections. He also had about half the island
standing by to service the aircraft when it came in.

I
commandeered the airplane, much to the displeasure of
the incoming crew (they were Reservists and insisted
it was "their" airplane), and decided to deal with
that matter at some other time.

The
medics had the injured sailor in stable condition by
this time, and we sent them all off to Clark. Then it
was that I realized that it was Sunday, and the runway
at Clark was closed. Once again the Chief managed to
get me the autovon connection I needed on the first
try so I could call them and inform them that I was
sending a C-141 their way with such and such an ETA.

The
reserve crew were being real pains in the
you-know-what. I got them airborne on the next C-141
out. Then I informed the command post at Clark that
they were coming their way and that something looked
funny in the baggage and maybe customs should give
them a thorough going over. The command post came to
the same conclusion.

My
tour was cut short by a couple of days. My wife took
sick and was admitted to the hospital at Yokota. I
couldn't get through on autovon, so I fired up an APU,
cranked up the HF and phone patched through Clark.
Everyone on the planet knew about my wife's kidney
stones. People on Vega (23 light years away) now know
about it. We knew a lot of the C-130 folks at the
squadron there, so we got tons of phone calls from
Japan and the Philippines shortly after our return.

I
do have some pictures, but they are lost in the noise
level of about 5,000 pictures I took in my 3 ˝ year
tour at Yokota.

1980
through 84.

ROB
HODGES <hawkeye6936@attbi.com

My
how Diego Garcia has grown up. And now a new
aircraft added to the TDY stock.

I
used to fly in and out of the sandbar for MAC from
1980-1984. I was stationed at Clark with the 9th
Aeromedical Evacuation Sq.

In
those days, the females were in the lagoon aboard
ships protected by USMC law enforcement.

In
thoses days, A pallet of mail got you surf & turf
box lunches on departure.

Then,
billeting
was in the gym......so much for Crew Rest.

And
back then, Norton loadmasters and Flight Engineers
nude sun bathing found out why they shouldn't have.

BIOT
Customs would "ask" for the names of the crew "for
bulleting purposes" of course. No biggie unless
one of the males happened to be named "Francis" or
"Carroll" The whole island showed up at the crew
entrance door.

When
we did bring female nurses, oh brother!

Great
site. A
lot of hard work. BTW, the link to the British
club is now dead.

Rob
Hodges

1980

From: "DAVID
POPOLA"
<gunsforfreedom@hotmail.com>

hi
ted,

really
enjoy your site. in january of 1980 i was
detatched to diego garcia to provide weapons support
for vp 23. i guess cause vp 4 didn't have the hackles
harpoon update package for the p3 orion. ok by now you
are wondering what my point is ? well heres the deal i
haven't been there in over 2 decades

and
was wondering if you were ever contacted by the other
personnel that were detached to diego in 1980 from nas
brunswick maine.

i
have message traffic in hand to verify my claim I
being one of those from nas weapons brunswick maine
that established and manned the first weapons and
stowage capability on diego garcia. at that time
my rate/rank was aoan popola. if my story spurs any
interest thats cool e-mail me back. if not i will go

back
to drinking my beer.

you
know being an ao is kind of like a mother handing her
son his brown bag lunch - if you ain't gonna eat it
dont bring it back home drop the damn thing some where
along the way.

sincerely
, d.popola

1980

NAME
= Eddie Young

VT
of a SWALLOW = Is "swallow" a noun or a verb?

E-MAIL
= the7youngs@earthlink.net

NATIONALITY
= US; SERVICE = USN; UNIT = VS-31 ; RANK/RATE/JOB =
AW2

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = Miss Piggy(US-3A COD) was transferred from
Midway to IKE and assigned to VS-31 during the Hostage
Crisis. A major difference between Miss Piggy and a
real S-3A was Miss Piggy's lack of ejection seats. In
the event of a serious inflight emergency 1800NM from
anywhere but saltwater and seasnakes, the survival
procedure was to ditch the A/C, deploy a raft, and
call for help(yeah, right!).

Highlights
of flying Miss Piggy from Gonzo Station to DG and back
included:

A
near collision with a Royal Thai Airways 747(so much
for ICAO flight plans).

TWO
inflight fires, the first one a real "MAYDAY, MAYDAY,
We have liquid & lumps in our flightsuits"
experience.

A
single engine day carrier landing with an extremely
nervous U.S. Congressman and his extremely nervous
entourage.

Landing
at DG with 300 pounds of fuel onboard after losing our
Omega Nav system and being steered RF/DF by a P-3. We
were about six minutes away from a much unwanted
swim-call.

Flying
Miss America and four runners-up(Bob Hope's USO
Tour). Shortly after takeoff from DG, I served
box lunches(with sodas)to the ladies. After lunch, one
beauty asked "Where's the bathroom?". I pointed to the
relief tube within arm's reach of my jumpseat. She
unhesitatingly replied "No thanks". 2 hours later she
asked "How does it work?". Thinking quickly, I
fashioned a box into a funnel, placed it into the tube
and gallantly volunteered to hold it for her. After
some animated conversation with her peers, she decided
to try it! Keep in mind that its difficult for
most(some?) gals to pee while wearing a flightsuit.
She unstrapped and made her way to my side, partially
stood up, unzipped the flightsuit, wriggled out of it,
dropped her panties, positioned herself carefully over
the funnel/relief tube, and did her business. By
this time, the pilots were going apeshit as I was
giving them a blow by blow account of the proceedings
over the ICS. They were trying to crane their necks
around the bulkhead into the passenger compartment for
a peek. I enjoyed the whole show, as there was no room
for me to move from my jumpseat. It worked so well for
the first that the rest of the gals decided to go too.
You can only imagine my joy!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = I am a Born Liar, and Want To Tell
About All The Sex I Had on Dodge

MY
WARSTORY = 22 years ago this week the U.S.S. Baton
Rouge (SSN-689) "The Big Red Stick" (Or big red
something or other.) arrived in the beautiful harbor
of Diego Garcia. We snuggeled up tightly against
the U.S.S. L.Y. Spear (AS-36). The Spear was the
first Navy ship to forward deploy with wimmin on
board. We were warned by the COB not to fool around
with the females on board the Spear. It was a
quite interesting time aboard the BR. Walking
into the head in middle level and finding one of our
machinists in freshly creased dungarees, clean shaven,
and putting on the stinky stuff. Going to the
Hydraulics shop. Hell, we'd been underwater for 3
months. To make a long story short. My wife
and I will be celebrating our 22 wedding anniversary
this December. I proposed out there in anchorage
B-1. (I don't know if it's still called
that.) With a hammerhead shark named Hector for a
witness. We really do have plans to go back one
day, and attend to some left over business from our
first visit. We may be the only sailors who have
genuine romantic memories of Diego, without having to
worry about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy."

MY
WARSTORY = My War Stories have more to do with before
and after going to Diego.

After
successfully
dream sheeting for Naval Radio Station (R), Sugar
Grove, WV out of RM School. I decided to apply a
strategy when dream sheeting my next duty station from
NRS Sugar Grove. I dream sheeted: Glasgow-Scotland,
Reykavik-Iceland and Adak, Alaska with my Ultimate
Duty Station as Down on the Ice in Antarctica.

My
orders come in with my detailer deciding that
NAVCOMMSTA Diego Garcia needed me far more than any of
my preferred choices. I called to plead my case with
the detailer, telling him that I wanted COLD weather
locations. I'm thinking 7 degrees South of the Equator
was a bit out to far North. But off to DGAR it was!
When I called my folks to let them know where I was
headed, my dad said, Diego Garcia? Didn't he used to
pitch for the 68 Yankees?"

On the
island,
in addition to the normal activities (read: drinking),
I spent a lot of time with the guy's of the NMCB Det.
at the MARS station running phone patches back home.
We didn't have Cable & Wireless yet, although
being a Radioman, at least we had access to the
Autovon line. I also spent a significant amount of
time at the Ham Radio Station making more contacts
than I cared to log. As an amateur radio operator,
DGAR was like being at the Ham Radio answer to Mecca.
In amateur radio, DGAR was, and still is one of the
rarer contacts to be made around the globe.

While
making contacts with other hams around the world, I
managed to consume a vast quantity of fresh popped
popcorn. Several of the fellows had managed to get a
50lb bag of popcorn they had swapped one of the
transient air crews a case of steaks for. Also, along
the line of snack foods.....While some of the domestic
beer on the island was nasty from baking in shipping
containers, who can forget the bags of stale Doritos
from the exchange? Expiration dates on the bag being 6
to 9 months old! Only the finest for the boys on
Dodge.

I
loved the room inspections..."There's coral dust under
your rack!"...Duh...No kidding, were living on a
frigin' island with coral used as aggregate in the
concrete....Of course in Antarctica, it probably would
have been ice! Sheeshhh...Talk about bullshit...

After
leaving the Navy, I went to technical school and ended
up landing a job with a international fire protection
firm in Cleveland, OH. One day at work, my
manager calls me into his office to give me my next
assignment. He starts to tell me about this contract
we were awarded with the Navy. Some

little
island out in the middle of the Indian Ocean that no
one has ever heard of called Diego Garcia. I
proceeded to tell him I had been there, done that and
had the t-shirt(s). He ended up giving the project to
another designer. I suppose he figured that I had
already paid my dues. So much for my return trip back
to Fantasy Island!

I
have enjoyed Ted's web site almost as much as Diego
itself. I would like to petition the PPDRDG to create
a position of Communications Minister for which I
could apply. It's obvious with my communications
background, that I could easily learn Smoke Signals
and Drumbeats for secure intra-island communication.
Hell, I can still send and receive Morse code better
while drinking, plus no one notices any slurring!

Survivor
TV series my ASS! We got to have some great times on
Diego Garcia and were paid to do it! Hail to our
leader Ted! Thanks for providing such a great
forum...Long live the PPDRDG!

Nice
place to be but under the wrong
circumstances. Good nights listening to Bob
Rogers and the guys jamming in the 40
club hut. Drinking so damn much that you
would puke.But it felt great to relax and forget the
shit that was going on. Rain, heat, humidity,
more rain, warm beer, Donkey Burger, supply ships
arriving, hut searches by the Brits.

Merrill
Lamb,Mike
"Dogface" Mckinnon ( I still see him ) Steve Foley,
Steve Latting, Tom Reedy, Scott Valler, Rick Moon, and
many more. Remember the big fire at the OP's
building? How about the Miss America USO
show? Ship unload duty? Partying on the
beach? Good times there but also bad times like a
certain night of Sept. 30, 1980. If you remember
what happened that night then I guess maybe then that
you knew me. Well gotta go, I'm glad I've found
this website. FTN-40 Buzz

MY
WARSTORY = I was hanging out with some of the 1st and
2nd class petty officers in one of those god forsaken
hooch's with the friggin moss growing on the steps
because we hated pissing in the jet fuel
(JP5). We were eating jallopeneos and drinkin
smirnoff (average day) when we got this idea to rent a
14' deep V row boat with 4 hp motor and try fishing in
the lagoon. The 5 of us thought it would be fun. We
managed to haul everything in the boat including the 5
of us and a case and 1/2 of anchor seagull piss beer
and the fishin' poll.

We
got about 100 yards off shore when the waves started
hitting hard. It turns out, when old Willy Wilson
mounted the motor he must have thought it would
tighten itself to the transom, well need I say more,
that thing came screeming out of the water, flew off
the transom and was dangling underwater by a chain
which somehow he thought to connect. We all
scrambled to save the beer while the motor, still
running, was thrashing around under the boat. I
think Hector high tailed it to the ocean side.

We
managed to make it back (fishless) laughing our fool
heads off. We made Willy pay for the
motor. I was 18 then and 40 now but glad to have
the memories. Any Seabees in public works or nmcb
62 around that time, shoot me some mail. Ski

Spring
of 1980(To the best of my recollection)

NAME
= Kenneth Mangum

VT
of a SWALLOW = Is it diving or just floating?

E-MAIL
= mag@astrosfan.net

NATIONALITY
= Texan; SERVICE = Navy; UNIT = USS Dixie (AD-14);
RANK/RATE/JOB = Just a regular MMFN working in A-gang
back then, but I was actually doing my time in the
galley while anchored out in the lagoon at Gilligan's
Island. Now, engineer for oilfield company
working in the Gulf of Mexico.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = For all you people out there wondering
where all the nautilus's went, I will tell
you. As mentioned before, my ship was anchored
out in the lagoon for five months during the Iraninan
Hostage crises. I caught the ship for the last
two months there. Me and a friend hitched a ride
on a jeep that went through to the British side of the
Island. We jumped off and headed for the beach
and found lots of shells of course, including 2
nautilus's, so we each got one. Those things
could have been there for years I guess. Anyway,
you're all familiar with the usual beer drinking
binges, picnics and such, boxing matches, softball
games,....so I won't bore you there. Oh, about
the picture with the palm tree almost horizontal, I
swear I have the same picture, well, had it darn it, I
may still have the negatives somewhere!!!

MY
WARSTORY = Well alot of water has gone under the
bridge since 1980. Hard to belive it will 22
years. It was my first deployment from
Hawaii. I was embarked on the USS RACINE LST
1191. We referred to it as the raisin - a flat
bottom section of hell to we called home. I will
never forget the sunsets on deigo, to this day i
always tell people that they have never seen sunsets
like that, even in Hawaii. There was nothing much
to Deigo back then. We trained during the day,
not too hard as there was limited area to do serious
training. At night we cooked hotdogs, burgers,
seafood and drank beer. I remember looking at the
sunset with a beer in my hand and thinking how far i
was from anything. We had a great time there and
I was with best guys I ever worked with. Their
names: Cpl. Mike "mad" Lloyd, Sgt Threult, Sgt
Idso, Cpl J.P. Johns, Cpl D.C. Caldwell, Cpl Fast
Eddie, L/Cpl Danny Laguia. On the other hand I
may be headed back as a contractor -
telecommunications for a year. Funny how things
come around.

Just
came ashore with a few of the crew for some cold beers

NAME
= Mike Smollon

MY
QUEST = Messmen/Cook Officers Galley

E-MAIL
= Msmollon@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= American/Irish

SERVICE
= Military Sealift Command/USNS RIGEL - unrepped with
the 6th fleet during hostage crisis in the early 80's

UNIT
= Stewards dept.

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
I was about 21 years old my duty was a cook/messmen in
the officers galley. I left the sea for family reasons
about a year later reluctently never to return.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = My Time There is Lost in an
Alcoholic Haze, Help Me Remember!

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = Actually, I Have a Real Story To Tell

MY
WARSTORY = I was aborad the USNS RIGEL with MSC the
crew started to be ferried ashore once my friends and
I came ashore we went straight for the beer hut. We
just hung out at the beach enjoying a few cold beers
laying around. When a explosion of smoke plumed from
our ships stack. I remember enough that I had said "OH
SHIT" what was that? the friends I hung out with were
young officers names have abandoned me but the ranks
as I can try to remember were 2nd mate, 3rd mate, 3rd
engine, a couple of other guys I think were deck dept.
I was the only stewards dept guy in the group. One
fellow was nick-named Mad Dog what a guy he alone made
the voyage awsome! Where is Mad Dog? I last heard he
was sailing out of California with a union company.
One fellow among us was a proud mick who thought the
British flag flying over DG was a bit lonely so he
hoisted his own Irish Flag above the British as a
result he spent the rest of his liberty in there
brig. Leaving DG was memorable for me since I was
initiated under King Neptunes rule from a poly-wog to
a shell-back going to DG. With a starboard list
resulting from the boiler blowing up we headed for
Subic

bay
for repairs. Olongapo, Olongapo where art thou
Olongapo! GOD that was a great town, bless those
filipino girls! Hope to hear from some of you
guys.

1980,
1981, and 1982

NAME
= Larry Ortega

MY
QUEST = to find the Holy Grail

VT
of a SWALLOW = European or African swallow?

E-MAIL
= AKAZILLA@AOL.COM

SERVICE
= USN; UNIT = NMCB-62; RANK/RATE/JOB = I was a cook on
my first deployment, and a steelworker on my second
one.

MY
WARSTORY = I was on Diego 2 deployments back to back.
Great fishing! I still have the shells that I found
there. My wife has them on top of her piano where they
have been since I sent them to her from Diego. When we
see NATURE specials, they talk about Cone Shells and
how poisonous they are. We both look at the great big
cone shells in our living room and think, "Boy was I
ever dumb to pick those up."

There
was a fleet guy there the first time I went there. His
name was Lee Reddick Jr. He was there when I arrived,
and still there when I left 8 or 9 months later. When
I came back 6 months later, he was still there, and he
was there at the end of my second deployment
too. Does anybody know if he ever left the
island? Does anybody remember Darrel Oates, Kenny
Barr, Max Parker, "Trego", "Critter" from
NMCB-133,Mike Baddners, Ron Parvin or the weird CE
that ran the MARS Radio station? How did Olson
ever make it to Admiral/Radm? He was too busy getting
soused and getting into fights. If you know these
people, let me know. I am going to go look though my
old cruisebook and see who else pops into my brain.

Some
of the jobs I was on were the pier, the fual farm, "C"
site, and extending the runway to handle
B-52's. For the people currently on Diego,
Remember that place well. When you get back to the
real world and tell people about it, they will
not believe you. They will not believe how clear
the water is, how white the sand is on the
beaches, or how good the fishing is. You may (or
may not) think that Diego sucks, but over time, it
will become one of the best places in your
memory. I liked Diego when I was there, but then
I like isolation duty and fishing.

Best
Wishes,

Larry
Ortega aka "Taco"

P.S. I
am the guy who took the picture of Hector the
hammerhead shark - When we landed the boat (16
foot Boston Whaler) I gave the picture to Nigel, the
Brit Rep. A friend and I had been out fishing and had
hit a school of Cuda. After about an hour of fishing,
something hit my line really hard and I brought up
about a 6 or 7 foot white shark. We tied a rope
around the tail of the shark, and headed back in to
the beach at the SEA huts where we lived at the
time. As I turned around to take a picture of the
shark, I snapped the pic, and all I got was a pidture
of Hector swallowing my shark and biting through the
rope we has used to tie it to the boat. When I
told that to everybody on the beach, they said "NO
WAY, talk is cheap". I showed them the picture, and we
ended up drinking warm beer with Nigel and
we gave him the picture.

P.P.S. I'm
trying
to track down Max Parker, Scott Zoeller, Mike Badners
and any of the other "Delta Dogs".

1980

NAME
= John Flynn

MY
QUEST = To find the Grail.

VT
of a SWALLOW = English or African?

E-MAIL
= jflynnstl@aol.com

NATIONALITY
= American; SERVICE = US Navy; UNIT = Military visitor

RANK/RATE/JOB
=
LT, Bombardier in A-6 squadron on USS
Eisenhower. Was later editor of the Navy's
Approach magazine from 83-86, now a management
consultant with big firms, currently working on
logistics modernization for the US Army.

MY
INTEREST IN DG IS = Stroll Down Memory Lane

SUBJECT
OF MY STORY: = I'd Like to Share Precious Memories of
Drinking/Fishing/Snorkeling/Sailing on Diego Garcia

MY
WARSTORY = I was on Diego twice for short periods of
time, but it made a strong impression. The first time
I was in transit from the states to the Ike on Gonzo
Station during the Iran Hostage Crisis. I arrived from
the Philipines in the quasi-comfort of a C-5A
"Aluminum Overcast." I spent a couple of days
mostly walking around the island, drinking at the club
and enjoying the cuisine of Diego Burger, the only
fast food joint on the island. The first night I
slept in a quonset hut in the jungle, but thereafter I
stayed in a litte air-conditioned shack that was
assigned to the air wing. I found it very peaceful and
relaxing. I think of Diego as Jimmy Buffet's idea of
heaven. Finally, I hitched a ride in an S-3A that was
being ferried out to the ship, which was about 5 hours
away. I spent the next 8 months flying recon
missions off the coast of Iran and preparing to
attack, which we never did.

The
second time I was on the island was months later when
I got to play "Survivor" in a Search & Rescue
(SAR) exercise. I got dropped on a remote part of
Diego with just the stuff I would have had if I had
punched out of an A-6. Then I had to go through all
the procedures: Using the hand-held radio, signal
mirror, smoke flares, etc. to get a helo to come and
get me. After several hours, I got "rescued" and my
reward was to get to spend a few more hours on the
populated part of the island, visiting Diego Burger
and the club once again.

My
time on Diego was short, but the experience has stayed
very present in my memory. It struck me as having the
rare charm of being completely unique.

1980-1981

Billy
Bob <lumpdawg@pacbell.net>

Organization: just
another
slug

Sir,

I
was a member of the class of 80-81 and will never
forget my experience on Diego. I have some
incredible stories I would like to relate about my 12
month hoot. My only concern is the statute of
limitations issue. Could any one hunt me down and
haul my ass off for shit I did twenty years ago?

Billy
Bob

[editor's
note: Yes. And
they read this page regularly to find guys who might
have stolen the CO's jeep on night, or fished
illegally for lobsters. Several correspondents
have wound up in Portsmouth Naval Prison because of
their indescretions on these pages. So look out,
Billy Bob, they're coming for YOU!]

Here's
his follow up story:

Honorable
President
for Life,

As
all of us sailors will testify, you got your 'no
shitters' and your 'sea stories'. I would submit
to you that this is a 'no

shitter'.

I
reported to Diego July of 1980, after begging,
pleading and down right promising the detailer a three
finger reach-around. Ultimately I convinced him
the US Government would be better served if I was sent
over there as opposed to Bahrain. This was the
first time I had ever heard the expression "Be
carefull what you wish for." The Iranian hostage
crisis was full tilt and you couldn't skip a stone
acrossed the lagoon without hitting that tub the Ajax
or the other odd assortment of those big gray
things. As a SeaBee with NSF Public Works, I was
grateful for the discomfort of a sunburn in a cot full
of sand in Splinter City.

I
didn't do 'haze gray and under way' and for the 11
months and 23 days I was on the Rock, I spent a total
of fifteen minutes on the Ajax, chasing down collar
devices. You think the Ajax looked bad from
shore? Take a mike boat over to her. Classic
case of 'good from far, but far from good!'

Within
my first 60 days on station, I had the drill figured
out. The detachment from NMCB-5 was always
partying. They had a cool bar set up. The
regular barkeep was from Jersey and his mission was to
get the FNG's to buy rounds. 'Shop talk buys a
round' stated the plaque behind the bar. Sure as
shit stinks, he'd snag me with 'Hey man. How's
the work on the airfield doin?" 15 guys standing
around for the bell to be rung and he banged me three
or four times before I got the clue.

At
least I got my name up on the Ralph Master. The
Ralph Master was a crudely fashioned piece of one foot
by one foot plywood enscribed with the names of
who ever puked after raging at the beer hut. Had
my name up on that thing several times. My first
entry was after about three months on the Rock. I
got my moving papers from Splinter City to the PW
barracks near the chow hall. Stuffed my seabag,
threw it on my new rack and blitzed over to the NMCB-5
beer

hut. Grabbed
a
Donkey Burger on the way. This was time to
celebrate. "Make it a sloppy Donkey,
boys. Just moved outta Splinter City". I
made it to 5's camp and just started slammin' beers
down. Keep in mind, these were the pull tab
Budweisers. Don't drink the sediment crap that
settled on the bottom. Took me years after being
back in the World to quit doin' that. Anyhow, I
started gettin' dizzy and I got about 20 feet out of
the beer hut when I lost the Donkey

Burger
in a most unflattering manner. Man, I just hurled
and hurled. Made it back to my new barracks where
I impressed my new roomates with my wit and
charm. I ended up dry heaving out front of the
barracks all night.

I
lived for mail call. The C-5 flying overhead
meant a lot of things to alot of people. For me,
it was fresh food and mail call. I ended up being
the mail call dude for Public Works. AFRTS TV
would play the stupid commercials with USO bimbos
announcing mail call. These broads were pretty as
home made soap but I damn near blew a rod every time I
saw the commercials. I would dash over to the
post office, grab the mail bag and head back to the
barracks. I would pass out the packages and
letters. This went on for a
while. I just happened to notice one day one
of the Brits followed one of the guys back to his
room. Gave him a pocket knife, "Open the
package, mate". Word had it the sailor ended up
in a Singapore brig. Seems some one sent him some
of those left handed cigarettes. But nobody
messed with me. The Brits had no idea. I
would leave my packages in the mail bag, pass out the
mail and just mosey to my

room. I
got
over for the most part. Then, the post office
started hanging on to the packages. They would
issue a slip of paper with your name. 'Report to
the post office to collect your package'. I
accumulated three or four of these slips after 2
weeks. I finally beat feet to the post office and
there's the friggin' Brit Rep. Aw
crap. "Open the package, mate." I knew
exactly what it was and I was crappin' my
britches. Two el bees of Mexico's worst
migrane-inducing chronic busted up into
quarters. And I was on the road to hell. I
swear I hemmed and I hawed for a lifetime. I

stammered
out a weak assed "I ain't never seen or heard of some
one named Sue Love. You gotta send it
back." Sue Love was the super secret return
address and I knew right away I was a dead
man. Sure enough, they sent it back, although I
think some one got the hint. My last three
months, I stayed away from the ilicit crap. More
than once, the Brits had fun shaking down my roomates,
who were clueless but made my life uncomfortable.

I
could go on and on but I'll just share some memories
before I bail: fighting over Drumsticks Ice Cream
cones at the chow hall that had been defrosted and
refrozen beyond physical recognition. Chowin down
on the best seafood and crab I have ever
had. Drinking ice cold Michelob out a
bottle. The Zoomies from the KC-135 det would
sell it for 20 bucks a case. And I gladly paid
it. Standing in line for 4 hours for Coors being
sold out of a refrigerated milvan, buying

my
5 case limit and going back for more. And then
dragging a case to the base theatre to see Willie
Nelson and Dyan Cannon in 'Honeysuckle
Rose'. Standing in the MARS radio line for hours
and talking to a mechanical voice that was 'sposed to
be my girlfriend. "I love you,
over." Drinking Strawberry Daisy, some long life
milk by-product crap that was

chunky
in every other box. Watching the majority of the
NMCB 5 detachment bumping around at three in the
morning after drinking the Mojo that got dosed by
yours truly. Farting in front of the fan in our
20 man hut in Splinter City and leaving to the howls
of my drunken partners. Pulling coral out of my
ass after trying to boogie board on the ocean side of
the Rock in the biggest, hollowest, closed out tube of
my life. Stealing a tank of helium, draggin it
out to the cannons and huffing helium with Ace till we
puked our guts out on the beach. Electrocuting
land crabs with a megger on the
airfield. Wrestling with the Public Works CO at
the picnic beach near Public Works. He'd throw
these BBQ's once a month and get down with
us. Seeing my first chick on the island after
nine months. She was a Zoomie air crew babe and
she was wearing Charlie perfume and I almost passed
out when she walked by. Getting dragged off the
C-5, goin' back to the world for good, by the Air Ops
officer to restore power to the airfield lighting so
the god damn plane could take off. Seems the the
switch was in the safety postion and the ATC couldn't
get the airfield lights to come on. Being denied
advancement and retention by my first class, only to
be pen and inked recommendation for advancement and
retention by my CO. Being denied orders for
school at Port Who-Needs-Me and assignment to Public
Works Pearl

Harbor,
only to have it thrust in my face my very last day in
the Navy awaiting an honorable discharge at Treasure
Island. Not no. But fuck no.

Billy
Bob

"Friends
help
you move. Real friends help you move bodies."

1978-1980

HARRY
CONLON <HWConlon@aol.com> See his 1978
story.

January
to September 1980 AND March to November 1981

Kurt
C <cannbefit@home.com>

MY
QUEST = To see if any of my ole' Seabee pals are still
alive and puking

VT
of a SWALLOW = Too fast for me to mention (but I
know how fast a rat can run through a sea hut, how
fast a chicken has to run to miss being hit by an
orange, how fast a donkey must run to get through the
donkey gate....

MY
WARSTORY = One warm afternoon while riding home in the
back of a 5-ton with a bunch of stinking, sweaty
pigbees, I decided it would be nice to cool off the
next jogger we saw with our left-over 10-gallon jug of
iced water.

So...my
buddy and I grabbed to cooler and as we drove by him
(his back was to us headed toward town) we got him
good!! It was great!

The
only problem was he just happened to be a Warrant
Officer and you know how mad they can get...So he cut
the next truck off at the pass and hitched a ride
after us. As soon as he got into town, he found
us and demanded to know who did it. We confessed.

To
make a long, and much worth it, story short...we wrote
an apology letter to him and promised never to do that
again.

What's
the moral of this story? It's ALWAYS worth it
when you can soak an Officer's head!

Enjoy
the 80 degree weather in those olive green shorts and
black ankle-high work boots - and don't let the foot
rot bite!

1980-1981

DAVE
<DChap578@aol.com>

Hi,
I retired from the Navy 2 years ago as a BMCS. I spent
a year in DG back in 1980-81 and hated it at the time,
but later realized it was really fun. I was a BM3 at
the time working at harbor ops driving a Mike-8 boat
supporting the 13 anchored ships and Sub tender. They
were still working on the pier when I left. The most
interesting boatrun I made was offshore to pick up a
Seabee in an intertube with his bags on his way to the
USA. Elian Gonzolas had nothing on this guy! Fishing
was really great and we were allowed to go anytime as
we were in charge of our own boats. Sometimes we would
go "outside" and troll and get large tuna along the
reef edge. One time a 275 pounder. I understand that
later though that there was a boating accident and
that was changed. We used to have stringers of large
Grouper and Snapper while we were anchored "inside"
and would have to pull them up occassionaly to keep
them from the big hammerheads. Is the legendary
Hammerhead "Heckter" still around. Well I wish I was
there with today, it was a lot of fun. Even though I
was in "Splinter City" open bay barracks. When I
retired in 1998, I went from driving Tugs, LCU's,
Ships, and boats to driving a Drawbridge in
Jacksonville Fla. (rides smoother). My last duty

station
was a PC out of Little Creek, lots of fun. Enjoy
your day, Dave.

1980
VP-48 Deployment (also '79 & '81 & a year in
'78)

DAVE
"DJ"
JOHNSON <Ejection4@aol.com>

Great
site, OLE DG brings back memories, I was there for my
year in 78, and went back with VP-48 in 79, 80, 81. I
would like to become a member. thanks for the memories
Dave "DJ" Johnson

1980-1981

SHAWN
DONOVAN <shawnfromut@webtv.net>

Discharged
1982
now work for the airlines ..... it was a different
place to be. u would have to have been there to know.

1980-1981

DALE
EDMONDS <daleintx@webtv.net>

I
got to Diego Garcia in Feb 1980 and left in Feb
1981. I had heard lots of different storys about
the place befor I got there and not very many of them
were good. I was very apprehensive about the
place when I arrived and stayed that way for a
year. I was Personnelman recruit straight out of
A school. I was immediately put to work doing
what we called receipts PN where I checked in
everybody and did some indoctrination and helped
people with their travel claims and whatever other
paperwork was needed. So I was usually the first
person people had any contact with on the
island. Just to list some of my shipmates that
worked in personnel: PNC Plummer, PNC
Richards, PNC Colt, PN2

Rowel, PN2
Hooker, PN3
Johnson, PNSN Kaschak, and me PNSN Edmonds.

Being
a PN standing duty was pretty easy I was the autovon
switchboard operator and could call any place in the
world for free. I had lots of people want to be
my friend when they found that out. I would have
pilots from carriers fly in and I would help them call
home or just anybody else that needed to but I was
breaking the rules by doing it.

We
worked 5 days a week and half a day saturday. Not
much time for fooling around. However i did fish
and snorkle a lot. Diego Garcia had beautiful
reefs in the lagoon and it was a real pleasure
swimming in the tropical waters. I saw so much
different tropical fish and other sea creatures not to
mention swimming up on an occasional shark or
two. I had a nice air conditioned barracks for
most of my time but was moved to the recently built
sea hooches when my replacement who out ranked me
came. The sea hooches were full of mesquitos and
it was all i could do

to
sleep at night. This was during the Iran hostage
crises and they were really sending many people to the
island and there were no quarters for them. Many
people lived in the gymnasium which we called the
Diego Hilton. There was a little burger stand on
the island which they closed later but you could buy a
donkey burger if you got hungry and didnt want to go
to the chow hall. The ships store was always
empty of most of the important stuff people wanted
except when the supply ship came. Then the lines
would be a block long trying to get the stuff you
needed or wanted. Sometimes we ran out of beer on
the island and then people started getting stressed
and irritable and very cranky. I remember the
cigarettes were stale and old and had little
black dots on them except Benson and Hedges so
that became my brand from then on. For me it
was a rough year I really got tired of the tropical
island stuff fast. No

woman
or civilians there until about 10 months after I got
there.

Actually
there was quite a lot fighting between people on the
island. I was in a few fist a cuffs myself with
people. Most of the people missed their familys a
lot and I couldnt tell you how many mens wives
diviorced them while they spent that year on the
island. I did many divorces and the paperwork for
them. I guess wives just couldnt stand being
apart from the husbands for a year. If you asked
me if i would like to live that year over again I
would say HELL NO. So thanks for letting me tell
a little bit of my story for my year on Diego
Garcia B.I.O.T.

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